Ahmed Sajjad Blog

Went shopping for a test/build machine last week and found a nice used IBM Netfinity server with 2 processors. Slightly underpowered, but good enough for most functions. And it looks really cool too.

Now building binary packages of all my favorite software on Slackware Linux. One thing I couldn't find was an smp-supported kernel with the distribution which is quite odd since Slackware is considered more of a server or expert oriented distro.

Decided on building my own 2.6 kernel which seems to be working fine, except that I can't see the two penguins (one for each CPU) at boot time. Some problem with the framebuffer settings which I didn't bother fixing. I'm tempted to replace the Dell desktop I'm using with one of these.

Posted at 22:06pm PKT Comments(1) | ¶

After about 3 weeks of it collecting dust in my house, I managed to drop my bike off at the repair shop last Monday. Just that task required the services of a pick-up van since even the closest repair shop is too far from my house to drag the bike there.

Now that the engine has been remade, it has to run about 1,000 km before it gets back into proper shape. That task is bigger than it looks due to the engine's small size: 70cc.

So according to the mechanic, I shouldn't ride faster than 40 km/h, take any passengers or go non-stop over long distances until the running is complete. I think I used to ride my mountain bike faster than that. It was definitely more fulfilling. I miss that bike.

Posted at 11:52am PKT Comments(1) | ¶

With US elections looming, there's a public outcry against Ralph Nader's decision to run for president again. Some argue that he was wholly responsible for getting George W. Bush elected by taking votes away from Gore during the last elections.

This site has a nice flash advertisement to persuade Nader and his supporters to vote Democrat and have Bush evicted:

Posted at 20:38pm PKT Comments | ¶

Got this from a discussion on Netiquettes on the TLUG mailing list. It should visualize Thread Hijacking for you if you're used to broken mail clients that don't support threading:

With the percentage of clueless people, who have no regard for Netiquette, growing so fast, the battle is starting to look like a lost cause. I'd really hate to see the Internet turn into a wild wild net or the other extreme; a closed system only available to the clued.

Again, I'm posting these links to articles that everyone should read at least once in their online lifetime:
USENET and Mailing List posting netiquette
Newbie Survival Guide to Mailing Lists
Linux FAQ

Posted at 15:16pm PKT Comments(31) | ¶

This Indian cabbie has been driving backwards for two years. Now he's planning to drive to Pakistan in reverse to promote peace between the two countries:

An interesting and novel way to make a point, though is it really worth the suffering and possibly permanent damage to your body? I just hope he survives Pakistani traffic.

Posted at 14:36pm PKT Comments(1) | ¶

According to this article, Yahoo! is dropping Google in favor of it's own search engine. With Microsoft working on it's own mechanism, will the next war be search engines?

Which reminds me, I should do my part in making the world a better place. Here you go guys:

Posted at 12:05pm PKT Comments(8) | ¶

Mouth watering isn't it? Though to get even a piece of this 1,500km wide gem, you'll have to travel 50 light years or wait a few billion years until our Sun turns into one. More info here:

I guess I'll wait until a chunk (really small chunk) of one of these stars lands in my backyard.

Posted at 12:53pm PKT Comments | ¶

"...the nearest thing we have to the perfect bend. It is symmetrical, it is easy to tie, it does not slip easily in wet material, it is among the strongest of knots, it cannot jam and is readily untied."

Yeah, you guessed it. I found it while wasting time on Slashdot. :-)

Posted at 12:39pm PKT Comments | ¶

Another hilarious look at the Japanese language and Japanese culture:

Posted at 12:33pm PKT Comments(1) | ¶

Yes, the rumors are true. I'm married. Was meaning to post a detailed account and photos of the wedding, but alas, I haven't had the time to do it. Since this is holding up all the other things I have to blog about, thought I'd get it out of the way. Will post something detailed later if Victor doesn't beat me to it.

Posted at 12:07pm PKT Comments(3) | ¶

Here is an article on four different distributions that can boot a whole system without requiring any installation. Great way to allow people to see what all the fuss is about:

For my home machine, I've found an easy solution to the noise problem. I have three aging hard drives and the covers don't fit anymore on the warped chassis so it can get really noisy, even with headphones on. Since the system is usually used for playing DVDs, it makes sense to disconnect the hard drives when I don't need them, both for noise reduction and to increase their life.

Movix allows me to boot from the CD and simply start playing DVDs/VCDs in peace. Plus, it uses MPlayer, my favorite video player. Even my brother, an avid XP user, liked it enough to replace the Windows player he was using.

There are three variations of the project. "Movix" is the bare-bones console version that writes directly to the framebuffer while "Movix2" starts up an X session and MPlayer in gui mode. "eMovix" is used to create bootable VCDs/DVDs that play themselves. An awesome project.

Posted at 16:19pm PKT Comments | ¶

Orkut is a social network service similar to Friendster, affiliated with Google. I haven't had much time to expand my Friendster or LinkedIn networks, but another one can't do any harm.

The downside to Orkut is that the only way to join is through an invitation by Orkut itself or an existing member. Now who wants to invite me?

Posted at 15:45pm PKT Comments(6) | ¶

Here's an idea I'm borrowing from Kristin which she borrowed from Antipixel. Turn your work sideways:

.ecnalg a ta elbazingocernu kool egaugnal eht sekam ti woh ynnuF .)hsilgnE rof tfel ot thgir( elihw a ni ecno sdr@wkcab ffuts gnitirw tseggus dna rehtruf pets eno og ll'I

."tac" fo etisoppo eht ,"cat" nisuoc sti oslA .metsys XINU/xuniL yreve tsomla htiw semoc taht "ver" dellac ytilitu elttil eht tegrof t'nod tub ,nuf elttil a rof elssah hcum oot s'ti taht yas thgim uoY

Looks like Elvish doesn't it?

Posted at 16:49pm PKT Comments | ¶

Just a few days ago, some of us were having a discussion about Linux on the desktop and what it needs to move ahead. Here is an interview with Torvalds about it:

One thing I've noticed is that roughly three years ago, I was arguing the case for Linux on servers as a better alternative to other operating systems. Now it is about desktops so things have definitely improved.

Posted at 23:29pm PKT Comments | ¶

Just got back this morning after a rather uncomfortable night journey. I had left for Lahore late Tuesday night to bid farewell to my uncle who departed for Oman (for work) yesterday. Wish I had more time to spend in Lahore since there's so much to do and see there, but that'll have to wait for now.

The newly opened Allama Iqbal Airport looks awesome and development of the city seems to be moving at a much faster rate than Islamabad or other nearby cities. I might think about moving to Lahore since there's so much going on. Unlike the Capital, it's also a bigger market with potentially more demand for hi-tech.

Just wish they would improve the transport system.

Posted at 14:38pm PKT Comments(5) | ¶

That's what the banner on the highway said this morning on my way to work. There were a few others as well, all welcoming the guests to the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit being held here.

Among the guests are leaders of neighbouring countries such as India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh so it is probably the biggest event to be held here of late. Due to the unfortunate events of last month, security is also tighter than it has ever been before. A large part of Islamabad is sealed off to the general public and I have to go through security checks while coming to the office or going home.

Hope everything goes well and this inconvenience is worth it.

Posted at 14:42pm PKT Comments | ¶

The latest in my seemingly sadistic and twisted computing tricks includes adding another machine to handle my workload. I already use my laptop to connect to Sufyan's desktop at work (through VNC) to delay the death of my lappy's hard disk (bad sectors have started to appear), but it slows down response times for both of us.

My Opera browser alone eats up over 100MB of RAM due to my nasty habit of keeping dozens of pages open at once. Add to that, Sufyan's instance of Opera and all the other apps that we both run, the 370MB of system RAM runneth over pretty quickly.

Instead of going through the pain of moving data to another system and reinstalling/updating the software I need, I've mounted my existing home directory on another machine (through NFS). Now I can connect to this new machine through VNC, take advantage of the newer interface (Fedora) and take the load off of Sufyan's machine. Since all my configuration files are the same as before, I don't even need to reconfigure anything. Try accomplishing all this on that certain other OS.

There was one problem though. The new machine has even less RAM than the old one so Opera still wasn't playing fair. In the end, I'm running everything, except the browser, on the new machine, using its RAM and CPU, while Opera continues to run on the old one, projecting its display on the VNC server through SSH.

Simple, ain't it?

Posted at 18:18pm PKT Comments | ¶

Wish all of you a prosperous year full of joy and happiness. My apologies to those I may have left out when sending greeting (e)cards. I'll try to be better organized about it next time.

A lot has changed during the last 12 months and I'm still not sure if it was overall for the better or worse. My New Year Resolution will be the same as last year's. 800x600 on my lappy and 1280x1024 at home. Sorry, couldn't resist :-). I'm tempted to say, "Crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women", but I'll go with something more civilized and serious. Here it is:

This year, I will try to improve the lives of as many people as possible, in whatever way I can. I'll also make an effort to be more organized.

Quite general, I know, but I'm still working on how to go about doing it. Again, happy new year.

Posted at 00:00am PKT Comments | ¶

Following MediaTinker's lead, here is a recap of my year in 25 words:

Snowboarding fun
Lots of blogging
Worked on Pylogger
Made lots of new friends
Left Japan after 5 years
Settled in Pakistan
Started my own company

Nice idea Kristin.

Posted at 22:41pm PKT Comments | ¶

Looks like Linux is starting to go to some interesting places. The "Robot Tarzan", or Treebot, runs on Linux, has a webcam and a wireless link. It helps scientists monitor environmental changes in forests. More here:

Posted at 15:15pm PKT Comments | ¶

Victor just sent in this article on the emergence of Japan as the next cultural superpower:

It was quite an eye opener for me since initially I thought of Japan as devoid of local creativity and imitating Western culture. Now that I think about it, it has gone through a radical change during the 5 years I was there, albeit in a subtle manner, and signs of Japanese culture can be found in far away places.

Looking around, quite a few things come to mind. Trey Parker, the creator of one of my favorite shows, South Park, also lived in Japan for a while and Japanese influences can often be seen on the show. As mentioned in the article, a lot of things in the Matrix series were derived from Japanese culture. Even Pakistan hasn't been spared. Just take a look at my company's name ("ii"nix) and logo .

Posted at 11:50am PKT Comments | ¶