How to spend time at office

Received these in email....

The Chat Mania!!!

I have always been a chat fanatic.. I had written a few posts on that too. But it has been a few days since I realized that we all have become so addicted to chatting, and how this is not a positive aspect.

Now let me prove my point.. (I'll just keep myself the target.. :) )

• To talk to my supervisor (who happens to sit right next to me), I find him on the chat network and send him a message. All I have to do really is to push my seat a little away from my desk and start talking to him, or I can just stand up look over the partition and start talking. But I don't do any of the above two and I send him a message.
• When my class fellow, who is in my team, is having fun with our colleagues, and as I can't barge in but do like to comment on my friend, I do the same thing, I find him on chat and send him a message.
• Whenever I am bored at office, and wanna have some fun, instead of getting up and going to a friend's seat, I chat with them. I don't get up, I don't budge, I just sit at the same seat I had been sitting on since morning, staring at the same screen and I chat. Whereas, leaving my seat vacant for a while won't let the business go down, would it? It would just be good for me if I could go and stand on someone's head for a while, and chat, chatting that includes talking NOT typing. But no matter how much I hate sitting all day long, I still don't go and stand and talk to someone.
• At client side, two people from the same company, (one of them is obviously me), sitting right next to each other, and still... chatting.. not talking but typing. Even if the discussion is purely professional, we still chat.
  

They invented chat, they invented emails for God knows what reasons, but one of that must have been close to;
"to bring people closer to each other"

With chatting and emailing, even if your sister lives in another country, you can still know her day-to-day life, you can still have long chat sessions with her, you can still be close to each other. Distances have shrunk because of this technology.

Let's go a little beyond chatting now. We have emails and text messages too. Now friends make email groups so that they can keep in touch with each other. That's all fine. Pretty good. But whatever the hell happened to picking up your phone once in a while and calling them up. Of course you can't call everyone and through email groups you don't have to do that. But still.....
And what happened to having regular lunch with your friends just so that you can meet each other.

And text messages... uff.. I hate being wished "Happy Birthday" through sms. On my last birthday a lot of people wished but through sms only, and I have gotten so much accustomed to this that even I messaged my friend on her birthday rather than calling her.
I even get invitations to weddings now over sms.

(People may think that I have a very weak circle of friends, who don't like hearing each other's voice and thus, restrict themselves only to written conversations. But this is not so, if you think about it, the above applies to most of us, not all may apply to everyone, but some would apply to each. I have just collected them all at one place so it seems a little depressing.)

Another aspect of chatting; the emoticons. They have become a total replacement of emotions. We use emoticons when we don't have emotions.

And maybe we use chatting so much because it's easier to express oneself over a written conversation... Anyways, we have indulged into this activity so much that we keep ourselves from getting up and talking to each other as much as we can..
They call it "The Advent of Technology".
I say "There is something wrong with the human race".


Author's Note:
By the way, I intended this post to be humorous. Highlighting my laziness of not getting up to talk but sitting comfortably at my seat and chatting.
But as I am a very serious person, I turned this into a debate rather than a humorous and tanziya (couldn't come up with English for tanz) piece on chatting.
My readers (if there are any) don't mind; the joke's surely on me.
And yeah.. I have nothing against technology. I earn my living sitting 9 or so hours in front of the computer screen and even spend my weekends doing the same. :) :)

Kahan aa kay ruknay thay rastay, by Amjad Islam Amjad

Kahan aa kay ruknay thay rastay, kahan mor tha usay bhool ja
wo jo mil gaya usay yaad rakh, jo nahin mila usay bhool ja

wo tere naseeb ki barshain kisi aur chat pe baras gayain
dil-e be khaber mari baat sun usay bhol ja, usay bhul ja

main to gum tha tere dhyan main teri aas tere guman main
saba keh gai mere kaan main, mere saath aa usay bhol ja

tujhay chand ban kay mila tha jo tere sahilon pe khila tha jo
wo tha aik darya visal ka, so utar gaya usay bhol ja

Kaheen Chak-e-Jaan Ka rafoo Nahee, Kisse Asteen Pay Lahoo Nahee
Keh Shaheed-e-Rah-e-Millal Ka Nahee Khun Baha, Ussay Bhool Ja

Kyun Atta Howa Hai Ghubar Main, Gham-e-Zindagee Kay Fishaar Main
Woh Joo Darj Tha Tairay Bakhat Main Soo woh Hoo Giya, Ussay Bhool Ja

Na Woh Ankh Tairee Ankh Thee, Na Woh Khawab Hee Taira Khawab Tha
Dil-e-Muntazir Too Yeh Kis Liay Taira Jagna, Ussay Bhool Ja

Yeh Joo Raat Din Hai Khel Sa, Issay Dekh, Iss Par Yaqeen Na Kar
Nahee Aks Koi Bhee Mustaqil Sar-e-Aieena, Ussay Bhool Ja

Joo Bisat-e-Jaan Hee Ulat Giya, Woh Joo Rastay Say Palat Giya
Ussay Rooknay Say Hasool Kiya, Ussay Mut Bulla, Ussay Bhool Ja

Qurani suraton kee khasosiyat..

Sur-e-Fatiha Allah ke azab se bachati hai.
Sur-e-Yaseen Qayamat ke din pyas se bachati hai.
Sur-e-Waqia fikar-o-faqay se bachati hai,
Sur-e-Mulk azab-e-qabar se bachati hai,
Sur-e-Kausar dushmanon se bachati hai,
Sur-e-Kafron maut k waqt kufar se bachati hai,
Sur-e-Ikhlas munafaqat se bachati hai,
Sur-e-Falaq haadson se bachati hai,
Sur-e-Naas waswasoon se bachati hai.

Life style of our beloved Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (S.A.W);
Talk softly,
Walk humbly,
Eat sensibly,
Breathe deeply,
Sleep sufficiently,
Dress properly,
Act fearlessly,
Work patiently,
Think truthfully,
Believe correctly,
Behave decently,
Learn practically,
Plan orderly,
Earn honestly,
Spend intelligently.

When we are students...

Before my first mid term of Masters, I was thinking about how all of us friends used to sit in a room, sitting with our books and notes open in front of us, but not studying.. oh not studying at all, but talking.. talking and having fun. And I thought everyone in Masters would be mature and no one would be talking loudly as we used to in Bachelors.. Bachelors was a different story altogether. Here they'll all be studying seriously, they'll all just reach the university 5 minutes before the paper so as not to waste their time, and leave immediately, again so that they can reach their jobs and start working. No jokes, no making bogus plans for cheating, nothing. Just serious people, waiting to give an exam and get over with it...
And I thought I would miss my friends. I thought I will be the only one asking
"Yaar parhna kya kya tha?"

Or asking;
"Oh that's also included in the syllabus?"

But I turned out to be very very wrong...
Because the scene there was the same. All the students sitting in the examination hall (though it wasn't like Bachelors in one way and that was all of us hadn't gathered there since morning but only came some time before the paper was scheduled to start), and all of the students instead of studying were having fun.

The same..
"Yaar koi mujhe yeh chapter to parha de?"

The same,
"Yaar yeh Sir ne itna sara kyun parha diya.., puri kitab hee parha dee Sir ne to"

The same,
"Ooye tu ne yeh parha hai?"

The same,
"Tu yahan beth mein wahan betha hoon"

It was all the same... the very same.


Note:
When I started writing this post.. and that was back in December 2008. I must have planned to include a lot of other things... But now when I am completing it I have already forgotten why I decided to write this post in the first place. :P :P

I am sounding like an author who has just finished writing her 100th novel after 5 years of work on it. :P :P

World's shortest horror story

World's shortest horror story by Martin Garner contains only the following lines:

"When the world's last man was alone in his room, the door was knocked."

Poetry

Kuch na kehna chup chup rehna,
Yeh bhi aik udasi hai

Hans kar saray sadmey sehna,
Yeh bhi aik udasi hai

Baithay baithay kho sa jana,
Yun hee door khayalon mein

Chalte chalte hanstay rehna,
Yeh bhi aik udasi hai

Maar ke kankar lehrein gin'na,
Baith ke jheel kinare par

Kuch logon ka hai yeh kehna,
yeh bhi aik udasi hai.

Note::
This of course has not been written by me.
Had I been such a good writer, would I have such a pathetic blog???? :)

Loads of work

The thing about 'WORK' is.... I don't wanna do it. I have loads and loads of work.... well not exactly.. but it would seem loads if you are not in the mood... wouldn't you???

Don't mind this post.. it's been inspired by reading blogs and then having a sudden urge to write something.
Something inside me said... write something yaar you have a blog too.

But it seems like I have nothing to write these days and that's what I have been saying for a long long time. It seems like I have never have nothing to write and then I manage to come up with something more inane than the previous post. I like the word inane.. it seems like the only word I know that can be called out of a vocabulary.. hmm or so I think.

So well, I have a laptop on my lap (of course where else would it be). Though one of my friends told me that you should always work keeping the laptop on a desk and not on your lap. But I say, that's where it's meant to be... :P

So I have a laptop on my lap.. a list of all the things that I need to do. And this laptop irritates me because I hate using this mouse.
And I have loads and loads of work to do and I am not doing it.
I have loads and loads of studying to do. I have a paper on Wednesday. But I guess, I won't study before tuesday. That's a rule... you don't study unless you absolutely absolutely have to. And that absolutely occurs only one day before the exam.

So somehow, accidentally I was navigated back to the list of all the posts I have written. See the magic of this laptop mouse. It click itself when it is pointed to somewhere for a longer period of time. Someone tell me how to deal with this. And don't call me 'Jahil', I don't use laptop. It's just a few times that I have used it and that too because I needed to. Desktop.. I use even when I don't need to, even if I don't have to use the internet, even when I don't have a project due the next day.. I would still have my desktop on all the time whenever I am at home and the electricity people cooperate. But laptop I use only when I have to.....

See... this has come out because I have to write something to make this blog look alive. :)

Anyways... so I have a lot of work to do and a lot of studying to do... and maybe that's why I am not doing it........... you see I have so much to do that I don't know where to start... and so I revert to blogging :P :P

Top 10 Ways to make people visit your blog

The following is a list of a few tips to make people read your blog or at least visit it.

1. Make your blog address a part of your email signature. Your emails would then resemble those who like to brag about their positions or think that everyone wishes to contact them and thus insert all their landline and cell phone numbers at the end of each mail.

2. Visit other blogs and accidentally leave your blog address in the comments of the latest post of the blog being visited.

3. Make sure that you somehow bring blogs and eventually your personal blog into the conversation with each person you meet, every day, even if it happens to be the first rendezvous.

4. Like people send an email address change notification to their friends and acquaintances, you can send a ‘blog created notification’. After all, the two aren’t that different.

5. Threaten your friends to make them visit you blog every day. Say things like:
“Jab mein mash-hoor blogger ho jaon geen na to tumhein autograph nahi doon geen.”
Translation:
“Don’t expect me to bless you with an autograph when I become an acclaimed blogger.”

6. Try to indulge your friends in blogging. It’s mostly the bloggers who are the blog readers as well.

7. You can also get your friends, who themselves blog, to add you in their blogroll. (Blogroll: A blogger’s favorite blogs.)

8. Thinking of a new nick for MSN. Just put your blog address in the personal message.

9. If you also like to write for magazines, make sure that your next published article has your blog address along with your name. Or, a better option would be to write an article on blogs.

Even if you haven’t been a writer till now, writing just one article for your own benefit won’t hurt.

You can do just one little thing instead of all of the above mentioned tiresome tasks –

10. you can start writing a good blog.

Another random collection

Un logon ka kya hua hoga,
Jin ko mere tarha ghum ne mara hoga,

Kinare par khare log kya jaane,
Doobne wale ne kin-kin ko pukara hoga.

Of Islam

When you are blessed HE is Rehman,
When you are cared HE is Wadood,
When you are gifted HE is Kareem,
When you are forgiven HE is Ghafoor,


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Agr 1 insan ke average age "75 years" ho aur woh har Namaz par average "16 minutes" rozana sarf karay to 75 years mein se sirf "3.8 years" lagaein gein Allah ke ibadat ke liye.
Jis ne humein zindagi ata kee, kya hum Us ke rah mein 3.8 years bhi sarf nahi kar saktay?


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When Allah leads you to the edge of a cliff, trust Him fully, only one of two things will happen:
Either He'll catch you when you fall
Or
He'll teach you how to fly.

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Jab insaan har kisi se chup ke gunah karta hai to Allah farmata hai,
"Ae Ibn-e-Adam, tujhay tamam rishton mein sab se ziada mein hee haqeer nazar aya"

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1. Sura-e-Yasin relief frm azaab in the grave

2. Sura-e-Rehman it will make us rich

3. Sura-e-Waqiya it will release u from hunger (Read after every Maghrib Prayer)

4. Sura-e-Mulk brings light in your grave

5. Sura-e-Jasia it will bring peace in your life

Quotes n Quotes

• There is no market for your sorrows in this world, so never advertise them.

• Success lies not in the Result but in the Efforts, Being the Best is not at all important, doing the Best is all that matters.

• There is always: A little truth behind every "just kidding"

A little curiosity behind every "just wondering"

A little knowledge behind every "I don't know"

A little (emotion and feeling) behind every "I don't care"

The Smiling Moon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dshole/3075761024/

Finals again....

Ahhhh again Finals. Going through the same ordeals of tyring to study and not being able to. Wondering why I didn't study when I could have, then justifying to myself that I couldn't have studied at that time either, trying to make a schedule so that each and every topic is covered while knowing that by the end there will always be something I didn't even look at, trying to study so that I don't forget a thing I read, while this time too, knowing that it's not possible.....
So it's Finals again...

Presentations....

I don't know why but I have lost the little confidence that I had. In the past too, I was afraid of giving presentations, but I somehow got myself up on the stage, and uttered something. I always tried to come up with new ideas to get people intrigued by the presentation title, interested in the slide background and hooked up with words. That never seemed to happen completely, but I thought I was able to accomplish something.
Lately though, it seems I have lost the touch.

And because of the sudden loss of the ittsy bittsy confidence, I try to run away from presentations, run as far as I can.

As bachelors ended, I thought it was the end of it all. No more presentations. Bachelors ended with presentations. We had to present our Final Year Projects to our judges and secure marks. Even then I wasn't that afraid of giving presentations.

You would think, after four year of rigorous and tiring attempts at giving good presentations, I would have obtained enough confidence to speak in front of as many people as could fit in a room.

But you have got it all wrong.

I have become even more afraid I guess.

In bachelors, I always tried to use a new slide template for every presentation. I never used the ones provided by Microsoft Office Powerpoint. I created my own. And I was proud of that. But now I restrict myself to the ones I can easily get. I don't have enough time to create my own, I say. While the truth is, I am out of ideas.

I thought with bachelors ended the ordeals that I had to go through before a presentation or a debate. Ohhhh I was so wrong.

Now I am supposed to give presentations to the clients as well.
My colleagues find my nervousness amusing. (But they do support as well, and help out with a lot of things.)

And I am expected to give a presentation to my team as well. When I know all the people listening to my presentation know better than I do about the topic I am supposed to speak on. When I know that I won't know a thing about most of the questions they put forward.

And then ofcourse, there are the Masters classes. How could I think that the presentations would end with Bachelors when I was planning to start my Masters right after.

And it came as a shock, when I was told in my first class of "Advanced Operating Systems" that we were supposed to give presentations on a releveant topic. And so I did... and so everyone slept thorough the presentation,, even the teacher.. can you believe that???.. I thought no matter how boring a presentation is ,, teachers would continue listening to what their students have got to say. But her expressions said that she was finding it as boring as everyone else (and as boring as me). But well, I have given the presentation... And she (my teacher) asked a few questions, so I guess she wasn't sleeping after all.

Though, it's not something to be proud of, but I still tell anyone who agrees to listen that "I gave a presentation, and everyone in the room slept."
Guess I do have a talent... I have a mesmerizing effect on people when I speak. That's one way to put it. The other blunt way is "I am as good a sleeping pill as any text book of the world." :P

Anyways, the point is, I have lost the little confidence that I did have on myself, and the point is, there is no end to the presentation stuff. They will always be a part of life... hmmm......

Mumbai Blasts...

I am not a news fanatic. The reason... I don't like what's said on the news or what's written in the paper. It's all about a blast here and a blast there.

Though I like watching movies in which the world's about to end and a team of Heroes save the world. But I hate it when it feels the world is close to it's end in reality. The reason, we don't have a team of Heroes to save the world. There is nothing like 'Save the future.' or something like 'Save the world'. Reality bites, doesn't it?

I got to know about the Mumbai blasts because everyone in office was discussing it.

I got to know they were blaming Muslims.

I got to know the attackers are claiming to be Muslims.

All of this through people..

Then in yesterday's (Saturday's) class, our teacher said that you should read what the general Indian public has to say about Muslims. They have been writing a lot in their blogs, blaming the Muslims. Of course, they are furious, they ought to be.

And so here I am, a non-political person, a person who doesn't even like watching news in fear of what I'll see, writing a post on the Mumbai blasts. Because I thought I ought to write something, I thought if there are so many people writing against Muslims then there must be some people writing in favor as well. I know there will be a lot of those out there too. But I thought I ought to join in as well.

I am not here to give the latest statistics on the blasts.

I will not be quoting anyone, I don't think I should.

I am just here to write what I feel.

And I feel it's wrong to blame Muslims for everything bad going around.

I know, I know, some Muslim group has admitted to be behind the blasts, they have taken the 'credit' for it.

But first of all, you don't become a Muslim just by saying that you are. Anyone can claim to belong to any religion, but that doesn't become true just by saying so.

Secondly, no terrorist group, if they are indeed terrorist, can't be Muslims, even if they say, even if they are Muslims by birth. They simply can't be Muslims.

And third. Would everyone be reacting in the same way, if the people who are behind all this claimed to belong to some other religion? If they claimed to be Indians.. would the reaction be the same?

It's easy attributing everything to Muslims. But hadn't there been any other blasts else where in the world by non-Muslims? There indeed have been. Is the reaction always the same? If terrorists belong to some other religion, do people really start treating everyone belonging to that religion this badly?

And let me tell you. Terrorism,... this isn't what our religion teaches us. Islam is the religion of peace. Before you start blaming any religion, you should go and read up on it. And Jihad.. there are certain rules to that too. Not everything can be called Jihad.

I know this post is going haywire. It lacks structure, as all other posts of mine do. But the thing I am trying to say is: We people are blinded by what media and government puts in front of us. We are blinded by what they say. We believe everything they say, even if we don't at first, after hearing the same thing over and over again, you are bound to start believing it. Someday, we start believing what everyone is saying all around, and we don't try to go in the depth of stuff. We are like that. But with this all, we start making the wrong decisions.

If the media says some religion is wrong, that doesn't make it wrong.

If the media poses something as the right thing, that doesn't make it right.

People have started looking down at the Muslims for a while now. You might bring up a lot of points at this that would direct the blame to the Muslims themselves. But again, if you don't know about this religion, you shouldn't be blaming it for it's teachings.

There shouldn't be any discrimination amongst human beings.

This is not a war between Pakistan and India.
This is not a war between Muslims and Non-Muslims.
This is a war between humanity and inhumanity.
And putting the blame on others, discriminating against a particular cohort of people, won't get us, the still-humans, on the winning side.
We'll keep on fighting an unwanted war against the people on our own side, and we would keep on loosing.
This would be the end. And it shouldn't be.

We, here at Pakistan, are saddened by what's happening in India. For us, this is not a loss of Indian's lives, this is not a loss of Hindu's lives, this is a loss of lives. As simple as that. A loss of life, doesn't matter whose life. A loss is a loss.

Microsoft Outlook - Receive Office emails elsewhere (say, at home :) )

I started using Microsoft Outlook, or should I say, I was made to start using Microsoft Outlook, about five months ago, because official addresses are mostly used through Outlook.
But, there are times when you may want to access your office emails at your home. You can do two things for that:
You can set up the Outlook at your home PC to your Work Email Address or
You can check your emails through mail.yahoo.com. Type in the entire address, including what comes after @.

But the problem is; all the emails that you have already downloaded at your office pc, don't appear when you check them through Yahoo or Outlook of Home PC. I never bothered to google for the solution. Fortunately, yesterday a colleague told me the solution for this. All you have to do is check an option by the name of : "Leave copy of messages on the server."

So today, I did google for it and found the following link useful. This link would tell you where to find the option, what checking the option would do, the pros and cons. So do check out this link before deciding to experiment.

Leave a Copy of Email on Server

Money Matters..

When it was our parent's money that we were throwing away happily, we never thought once about how we are spending it. I remember, in our last year of bachelors, we kept planning about going to that place for lunch or that place. I always voted for KFC, but somehow that plan always got canceled. One day one of very nice friends told me "Yaar, I went to KFC last night with family and thought of buying Zinger for you, but then I decided not to, as it would turn bad till the morning."
Now I am a person who doesn't like it when someone spends this much money for me without an occassion. So I said "Nahi yaar... It's good that you didn't buy anything for me. Why waste money?" And I got a very sweet reply "Friends mein chalta hai yaar."

Now we all have mashaAllah started our careers and now we always think a little before we go and spend even a small amount from our salaries. Now again, all of us were trying to make plans to go for lunch from our jobs, and the plans always got canceled. And then I finally decided I wouldn't go with my uni friends for lunch as if I plan for that I'll eventually starve to death.
Now consider the following conversation with the same friend of mine:

Friend: "Lunch tomorrow?"
Me: "No, not at all. You people will starve me to death as I am sure you will cancel this plan at the last moment as well."
Friend: "Hehe... Acha when we are going for lunch we'll kidnap you from your office."
Me: "Acha then you'll pay for my lunch as well."

Now read the reply she gave to me, the same friend who once said "Friends mein chalta hai" now said:

"Haan mein to darakhton (trees) se utar rahi hoon na"

:D :D

Busy, busy

It's been a long long time since I had posted something that is not about SQL and neither are just links to other sites. There are two reason for that.. one is that I decided that I should stop writing about things that go on insanely in my head,, after all who would want to read about that. I wanted this blog to be technical, which I guess I have miserably failed to do. :P The second thing is that I have been way too busy...

Just last Friday, walking with friends from office to a restaurant near by, we talked about how we are neglecting our health... the proper amount of sunlight that we succeed in avoiding each day, as when we come to our jobs there is not much sun and when we leave there is no sun at all, and the proportion of calcium that we fail to consume each day. And I realized, not for the first time, that we take care of everything else except our own selves. At first it was studies we cared about, and now it's our jobs.

Everyone is racing against time. Trying to get ahead. So ahead that we neglect our surroundings.

When my friends and I were about to start our jobs, one of my friends told me that she has already informed her employers that she will work only for 9 hours, not a minute less, not a minute more. The reason she stated was "We have already spent a lot of time studying, I don't want to be doing the same at job." And I agree with her, I totally agree. We have woven our lives with threads of job and studies.. we no more spend quality time with our families (this is the 'surroundings' I was referring to above which we neglect).

We only try to manage work, not our lives.

Hmmmm, once again the post started with something else and then became something else.

So I was saying I have been too busy with work and studies (ummm well I don't think I am studying but I kept the book open in front of me the entire day, yesterday, does that count as studying?) that I neither got time to write something, neither is my head bulging with ideas. The above narration is the only thing I could come up with.. :P

Anyways, once again I'll try writing more. Somewhere along the way I have lost the passion to write. I still like writing, provided I don't need to work on it. But I do, I sooo do.

A few days back, one of my friends gave me the address of her blog (which I'll be including in my blog roll, after I am done with this post). And just ruffling through it, I realized how much I enjoy writing and reading blogs. And it's because of her blog, that I am trying to return and put some live into "intricate zone". At least, I'll be writing something, I know no one reads what I write, but still I'll be writing something.


I noticed that that friend of mine had put her articles there. And I remembered I too was planning to do that. So I guess, someone who accidentally stumbles upon my blog someday, might find my articles posted here as well, amidst other inane stuff that I produce.


This is where I end... :P

Debugging stored procedures...

A while ago one of my friends told me about how she made a stored procedure and didn't debug it as she did not know how to, to which she had to hear "Yeh kaise programming hai?"

Hmmm so not knowing how to debug a stored procedure makes you a bad programmer.. huhh?

But whatever it means.. you should know how to do all the stuff that is provided in the softwares in order to fully explore the powers of the language being used.



So here I'll be talking about Debugging SQL stored procedures.

As I didn't know how to debug sps I too searched on the net and came up with many good articles.



Debugging stored procedures is very similar to debugging a function in Visual Studio. You set breakpoints, and then you execute the program in debug mode, whenever a breakpoint is hit the execution is paused so the developer can have a look at the current values of the variables etc.



I was thinking of writing the whole thing myself. But why waste my time and yours as well. I don't myself experienced enough to be writing all this. So I'll just put in the links that I found useful.



Debugging Stored Procedures in SQL Server 2000:



http://www.15seconds.com/Issue/050106.htm



This gives a detailed explanation of debugging stored procedures in SQL Server 2000.

I was only able to debug SPs from database that was on my own machine. I wasn't able to do the same by taking a connection from a database at a remote system. There must be some way of doing that but I don't know actually what that is. :)



Debugging Stored Procedures in SQL Server 2005:



http://aspnet.4guysfromrolla.com/articles/051607-1.aspx



In SQL Server 2005, you can't debug the stored procedures from within SQL Server 2005. But don't worry you can do it through Visual Studio 2005. I found this article pretty useful.

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Do keep in mind that some people argue that using "PRINT" statement is much better than debugging. You can PRINT all the values you want to and let the procedure run normally, without debugging.But I would recommend that you give debugging a shot as well, and decide which one is better for you. It is also possible that in some situations debugging is just another headache you are buying for yourself, but in some situations it might prove to be very useful. In any case, as I said, you should know everything you can about a language or a software to exploit it's full power.

Happy Debuggin!! :)

Long time... no see.................

It's been a long long time since I posted... My last post was on September 29, 2008. And that post and a few before it weren't exactly something I wrote, just links to some other resources which I found beneficial. So my last real post, one which I actually wrote, was on September 16, 2008. Since then, I have been busy with a lot of things. It was Ramadan at that time, and after that it was Eid, was very busy in job during Ramadan and even few days after Eid Holidays, then it was my mid terms. So now, I have gotten myself to write something on my blog, and I'll try to update it as often as possible. During those busy days, there were a lot of things I experienced or learnt which I wanted to write about, but couldn't because of the time constraint. A lot of those topics I have even forgotten. For those that I do remember I'll try to put them up as soon as possible. :)

Well, there was one thing I wanted to write about and I'll do that now.
It has been one year since I started blogging. It was "Intricate Zone's" or "Bina's Place" (as it was called previously) First Birthday in September.
My blog is one year old now. :) :P
The first post I wrote was on "Tuesday, September 25, 2007". It was another inane post by me, but nevertheless it was my first post. :) :)

So Belated Happy Birthday to my blog.

And also, Eid Mubarak (Long overdue wish) to everyone.

Programming in SQL Server 2005

A lot of programming can be done within Stored Procedures. Also when you are writing scripts to accomplish a complex task, it can be done more easily with programming. You can easily loose your way writing sub-queries, and you can end up compromising the actual task with something close to it but not really it.


There are a lot of things a person needs to learn in order to get the needed results and fast. And for that you need to have a little more knowledge then SELECT.

I haven't been able to find any good tutorials that would take me from the basics of programming in SQL to higher levels. There are a bulk of resources for Oracle but none that I could find for SQL. Yeah, maybe I lack adequate searching skills but whatever the reason, I have been restrained to use Oracle PL-SQL guide for learning SQL.
Now what I am doing is that I read something from Oracle Guide and then I try it out in SQL Server 2005 and when it doesn't work I search for that particular topic or syntax equivalent in SQL.

And what I am going to do here at my blog is that I'll write small posts giving the syntax for programming in SQL (something beyond the basic Transaction-SQL statements).

I don't have much to offer, but well.......

Anyone who can give me a reason for why I didn't get any decent search results is always welcome to explain it to me through comment.


Declaring Variables:

Syntax:

DECLARE @variable_name data_type

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188927(SQL.90).aspx


Declaring Cursors:
I don't know how to exactly define a cursor. (After all I am no DB Programming Guru, just in my learning phase.)

But cursors can be used when you want to select a number of rows and then iterate through each row one at a time, or manipulate them in any way.

Here's the
Sytanx:

DECLARE cursor_name CURSOR FOR sql_stmt

Example:
DECLARE my_cur CURSOR FOR SELECT * FROM Table_1

You don't have to start the cursor name with '@'.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180169(SQL.90).aspx

In order to execute the statement and populate cursor OPEN statement is used.

OPEN:

Syntax:
OPEN cursor_name

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190500(SQL.90).aspx

After the rows have been retrieved and stored in cursor, they can be worked on by using the FETCH statement.

FETCH:

Syntax:
FETCH position FROM cursor_name

where
position can be any of the following:
NEXT
PRIOR
FIRST
LAST

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180152(SQL.90).aspx


Note:
I know you may not find this information very useful. It's all just basic information, and my resource is too the internet, where anyone could get it easily. But as I said I too am in learning stages. I'll try to update my blog with the new things I learn.
And these are just an overview of possibilities. You get to know what things you can do, and then you can refer to the links I have provided to learn more about them.
This post is not in any way a tutorial, just a baby-tutorial, to provide you with guidelines.

References:
I am using the following book for Oracle Sytax:
PL/SQL
User’s Guide and Reference
Release 2 (9.2)
March 2002
Part No. A96624-01

The following links were referred to for SQL Syntax (Some of these have been stated above as well)

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188927(SQL.90).aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180169(SQL.90).aspx
  
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190500(SQL.90).aspx
  
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180152(SQL.90).aspx
  

Koi zabt de na jalal de
Mujhe sirf itna kamal de,
Mein har aik ke sada banon
K zamana mere misal de
Tere rehmaton ka nazool ho
Meri mehnaton ka sila milay
Mujhe mal-o-zar ke hawis na ho
Mujhe bas TU rizq-e-halal de
Mere zehan mein Tere fikr ho
Mere sans mein tera zikr ho
Tera khauf mere nijat ho
Sabi khauf dil se nikal de
TERI bargah mein aye Khudha
Meri roz-o-shab hai yehi sada
TU Rahim hai, TU Karim hai
TU sab hee balaon ko taal de.
AMEEN.

Of Ramadan and Islam

When the Night equals a Thousand

SQL Sever Tips and Tricks

http://sqltips.wordpress.com/

http://www.projectdmx.com/tsql/strcleanup.aspx

http://www.fmsinc.com/free/NewTips/SQL/SQLTip2.asp

The road ahead...............

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/education/education3.htm

Best Friends Redefined....

As I stood with my niece waiting for her 'van wala mama' to arrive, we started a little chat. To start the conversation my niece asked:

"Phopo, who is your best friend at university?"

Saying university in her own cute style, her own-created pronunciation, she utters the word like it's a very big word for her to say, which by the way it is, she is only three after all. Okay, back to the topic.
So I didn't know what to reply to this innocent question, so I decided to evade it by saying:

"Aap ho na phopo ke best friend."

At that she broached another question:

"Acha yeh bataein aap ko apni university mein sab se zada kaun pasand aata hai?"

At that I just laughed. Thankfully I was saved by the 'van wala mama'.

********

At dinner, I was narrating this story to my family (in my niece's absence). As they all laughed at the story, my brother (my niece's father) pointed out that she was actually defining what for her is the meaning of best friend when she asked me the second question.
After hearing my reply to the first question, she realized that I wasn't answering her truthfully, she realized that it wasn't the answer she demanded, she must have thought I was that dumb, so she rephrased the question for my benefit. For her,

"Best Friend" means "a person you like the most".

:) Which is not a very incorrect definition. Though this is not the way we adults define it, for us best friends would mean not the people we like the most, but the people who would give up everything for us.... well that's another discussion all together.

********

To confirm my brother's theory, I asked my niece the same two questions she had asked me in the morning. I asked her

"Who is your best friend?"

She gave me three names.
Then I asked her

"Who do you like the most in your school?"

She gave the same three names.

Definition confirmed:
Best Friend is a person you like the most. :) A simple and cute way to define the concept.

The Output Parameters

Sometimes when you write a function, you may want it to manipulate and return several values rather than one. Whenever I needed to do this I used to return an object.
But there might be a possibility that the returned object has no other purpose than to be used just to return multiple values from a function.
And then I discovered output parameters. Though I haven't really used them. (Just used them to check the functionality, nothing flashy. :) )

With output parameters you define the variables that will be returned. But you don't use the return keyword. With return keyword you can return a single value or object not multiple.
But with output parameters you don't use the return keyword to return multiple values rather you just specify that these variables are output parameters and their values can be used by the calling program and the called program can manipulate their values (in fact, assign them values).
For the above stated purposes you use the keyword out.

Example Code:
Say, you have a class "Class1.cs" (a very innovative name, right?)
In this class you have a function called ProcessNum which takes two integers as input and as output gives their sum and difference. This is how it will work:

public void ProcessNum(int a, int b, out int Sum, out int Diff)
{
Sum = a + b;
Diff = a - b;
}

Calling ProcessNum:

Class1 obj = new Class1();
int S;
int D;
int num1 = 5;
int num2 = 5;
obj.ProcessNum(num1, num2, out S, out D);
Console.WriteLine("Called ProcessNum of Class1 with parameters " +
"a: " + num1 + Environment.NewLine + " b: " + num2 +
Environment.NewLine + "Returned Values:::: " +
Environment.NewLine + "Sum: " + S + Environment.NewLine +
"Diff: " + D);

Source:

Apress Beginning ASP.Net 2.0 in C# 2005
Chapter # 3: Types, Objects and Namespaces
Pg. #: 75

Disclaimer..... or something to that affect

It's not actually a disclaimer. Rather a notification.. or maybe not even that. But just liked the sound of it. :P

For the past few weeks I have been researching on a few things and a lot of things have come up that I thought I should blog about. (Maybe that's because I don't want my blog to be just sitting there with the most recent post being the one posted a year ago. So I decide to add anything and everything on the blog.)
Whatever may be the reason, the next few posts might be just links to articles that I found interesting and informative, they might be about things you already know, or they might be about things you would find useful like I did. :)

Another act of innocence

My niece decided to drop in on me and inquire:

"What are you doing?"

She must have been intrigued by my posture of just sitting at my chair starring at the computer screen.
On her question I instinctively replied

"Reading a book."

At which point she asked

"Where is your book?"

Looking here and there, trying to look where I was hiding my book. She must have thought I was lying to get rid of her, while in reality I was reading an ebook.

New job... New life..... :)

It has been 2 months since I started my new job, that is to say, my very first job.

(I joined on 1st July, and people told me that I should have taken a break, and now I agree with them.)

I have been meaning to write about my job since the day I started, but never actually got around to it. This is because I didn't know exactly what to write. I don't know now either but have decided to go ahead with it anyways.

So... new job.. a new phase of life. Completely new and definitely different. Utterly new for me because I didn't have any experience of free lancing or internships. Different for the same reason.

We have been doing projects throughout the four years of our bachelors. These projects included not only the programming projects, the softwares we created, but also the presentations we gave, or the researches we did and produced a report as a result. We did a Final Year Project to give us an essence of what professional projects are supposed to be like. But being in professional life in reality is different then any simulation you go through during bachelors.

And it's not only the work thing. It is basically about settling at a new place. With new people, who will play different roles in your career, they can be your supervisors, the people who'll work with you side-by-side on a project, the people who are hired with you and the people who are your seniors. It's about settling with an AC on top of your head, and you are feeling like you are sitting in an igloo. It's about getting acquainted with your workplace computer. :P (People who work with me would know what I am talking about.) It's about getting used to the working hours, though they are less then the time we spent at uni, but definitely more tiring.

It's about calling your office, your place.
In an orientation session at office, the presentor broached a question

"Can a person work at a place about which he doesn't feel like he owns it. Can he work at an office which he doesn't own?"

I sat quietly while the others nodded. My expressions must have betrayed me because the presentor pointed me out and said "Yes you tell me, is that possible." And although I wanted to say yes, he can, I instead said no. And then he explained, again because my face expressions must have betrayed me, that

"yes it is possible if the person doesn't like working at that place."

For me the answer 'yes it is possible' holds true for completely different reasons. My reason being that if I think I own the place, I'll stop working. :D :P
I'll work when I understand that I am doing a job there and I am supposed to work. If I feel like this company's owned by me then I would surely not press even a single key, would not even bother to place a ';' at the end of a statement.
But what he meant by owning a place is not literally owning the company, but he meant owning in a completely different sense. And I won't go ahead and explain what he meant, because I don't know how to explain this phenomena.


And in the end it's about enjoying... making new friends, experiencing a new side of people. And again, enjoying...
Coz it's not worth if you are unable to find an element of enjoyment. Enjoyment encompases enjoying your work, loving what you do, realizing that you chose the right field, the right profession for yourself. And you realize that only when you like doing what you do. No, not like, love it. Enjoying is when you don't really want to get up in the morning, and you drag yourself to your office, but when you start working, you get so indulged in it that you don't realize the time flying by. Enjoying is when you are finally done with a project and you get that feeling of happiness, yes the feeling you get when you have finally accomplished something no matter how small. Enjoying also includes the feeling of nervousness you experience when you are assigned your first project, when you are asked to give a time line and schedule of that project, when you are expected to solve a problem, when you are expected to come up with new ideas and what not.
Enjoying is.. being there, doing it. :)

Things to do in Ramadan

As Ramadan approaches, pamphlets are distributed, articles are published in various magazines regarding the Ibadat that a person can indulge himself/herself into during this holy month. My mom read one of such articles to me, also specifying how can I complete them. Like at one point she said, you can easily recite these ayats on your way to office. You have ample time to complete one tasbeeh easily.
I am jotting down some of them below, so that we can all try to recite them whenever we can, and so that we may not forget to especially take out time for these. After all, this month comes but once a year.

One tasbeeh of First Kalma everyday.
One tasbeeh of Third Kalma everyday.
At least one tasbeeh of Astagfar every day.
One tasbeeh of Surah-Ikhlas (Kul ho Allah)
2 Nafil shukrana every day.
Try to offer Salat-e-Tasbeeh before Friday's Zuhur.
In Ramadan Surah-Qadr (Inna Anzalna) should be recited extensively. Recite it 7 times, at the least, every day.

You can recite a few even while working...
Read Ya-Allah, Ya-Salam, Ya-Hafeez.


Right after waking up in the morning, read Bismillah and then read Durud-Shareef three times, then blow on your wrists and then rub them on your face.
If you are irritated or angered by something then read Al-Hafeez, you'll feel better.
After Isha and Namaz-e-Taraveeh read Al-Qavi 21 times.
After Isha and Namaz-e-Taraveeh read First Kalma three times.

Source: Pakeeza (September 2008). Pgs. 303 - 305. You'll find a lot of other ayats you can recite during Ramadan. Do make it a point to go through these pages because I have jotted only a few of the many present.

Ramadan Mubarak

I know I am a bit late with this post. We at Pakistan are already done with the 3rd roza, this post should have come early but well, better late then never.

Ramadan Mubarak to all of you

May we all take the full advantage of this blessed month. Pray as much as we can and may we keep ourselves away from all kinds of sins for this one month at least. Ameen.

This is the month where all Muslims try to follow the rules a bit more carefully. When we all try to offer our prayers, all 5 of them and all at the right time. When we try to keep ourselves away from sins and try to indulge ourselves in Zikr. When we keep ourselves away from food, in order to achieve Allah's blessings.

It's a completely different environment in Ramzan. You know everyone is offering Fast. You talk more about Islam and what we should be doing in this month. People offer Taraveh we all try to finish Quran in this month.

I am writing all of this, not because I intend to preach about Ramadan. But because these are the things that I especially like about Ramadan. The fact that we all strive to become good Muslims, even if it's just for this one month. But even so it feels good that after all that has been happening all around, and after all the things we have entangled ourselves in, in spite of all the complexities we have sewn all around us, in spite of all the conspiracies we brew to keep ourselves ahead of everyone else in the race of life, there are times, when we detach ourselves from all these worldly affairs, or at least we try our best, and engage ourselves in our deen.

I would also take this opportunity and request everyone reading this to forgive me for anything that I might have said or done to hurt you in any way. Please forgive me.
Who knows I might not be there to ask for forgiveness the next time Ramadan is here.

How to search Google?

While searching for download links, I always wanted a way where I could limit the search so it doesn't include one of the many downloading services and includes all the rest. As I didn't know a way to tell google NOT to return the results including links that use say, "abc" download service, I used to put the name of the services that I did want google to return in the results. For e.g. if I want to download "Visual Studio 2008" I would request google to search [Visual Studio 2008 xyz], xyz being the service I want to download from. The problem was I don't know all such download services, I don't like downloading from abc for one reason or the other, but including xyz in the query would result in a limited set of pages, while the pages with other services would probably not be returned. I was at a big disadvantage here because there may be a possibility that xyz doesn't provide you to download Visual Studio 2008.

This is just one of the problem, if you are required to do extensive searches you may face a lot of such problems.

I always thought there should be a way, but unfortunately, stupid as I am, I never tried to look for one.

Then in my Text Mining class, the teacher asked us "Does anyone know what is the structure of a query when you want to search say, for "Algorithms" and "Operating Systems" with exactly two words in between". The class remained silent as a response. Then he asked another question "How many of you have read 'How to search google'?". I don't remember the exact name of the document he said but the next day I searched for a document and landed myself on the site:
Google Guide

This is an extensive site with good articles. Each article tells you about so many stuff that at least I didn't know about before. And reading just one article leads you to so many other links (mostly on the same site).
But the guide is very easy to read and understand.
I hope by the time I finish it I know the answer to the query "What do you write when you want to search for 'Algorithms' and 'Operating Systems' with exactly two words in between."

An Innocent Reply

A small boy comes to my place for tuition. He had proudly put on a badge (with lights). I decided to take his interview:
I asked him
"Who made Pakistan?"
The reply tough very true was something I wasn't expecting at all. He innocently and confidently answered "Allah miyaan ne" :D

Phir se jeevay Pakistan

This year we decided to celebrate a bit differently, trying to induce a feeling of love for the country into everyone. And letting people express this feeling with fervor.
So this year around, we decided to celebrate Independence Day with renewed enthusiasm.

The idea originator Rabia Sameem, floated an email amongst bloggers. I'll copy paste the email here so that you can all get an idea of it.

Assalam o alaikum my blogger friends,

Howdy? Well as each of you know that Independence day is just around the corner…and well I am about to ask you all a favor …in the name of Pakland :-)

Well everyone here is a request (read a very forceful request) to all of you to write a short, new blog post on the topic I am giving you below….Please :-)

“There is something Good about us….”

So as it is we all know that there are a whole lot of negatives about Pakistan and Pakistanis, the systems are corrupt and government is maybe good for nothing…and what not…but then again we all know that and talk far too much about it, so much so that we often overlook the nice things there are in us sometimes :-)

I read in a book somewhere that Oprah Winfrey once said in an episode of her show that a therapy to being happy is to think up 10 good things about your life each day and be thankful for them!!

Surely it generates positive energy!!

Taking up on that…I merely ask each of you to think up ONE good thing about Pakistan/Pakistanis that you have seen, know or think about…something that made you feel warm or you are proud of and write it on your blogs…but well there are a few simple rules:

•Please don’t pick up things that are fantastical or play word games…write something you know is reality based and actually there…. (people giving people lifts, someone helping someone cross road, neighbors helping, family values, respect for ladies) any incident you actually witnessed.

•And then write something you might want to do as your share, however little it might be…for eg: throwing garbage in dustbins instead of roads, following traffic rules, just telling anyone that despite all the short comings “I love my country” etcetera

Ofcourse none of your experiences will be applied to everyone for every situation but atleast it would be some chicken soup for the soul….I can think up a million things that cud be there, throw me an email if u need ideas :-)

We have www.teabreak.pk backing us up at this and so what I visualize is a collective effort of some 20+ then 30 + and then maybe even 80 or 90+ bloggers to say something good about Pakland (maybe end up practicing too) and tell it to the world around…and even if for a week or two we do something good, it still counts…because we count!!

And yeah I’ll really appreciate if you ask your friends ahead to do the same and of course do it before or lets say by “August 14th , 2008”!!

I hope that you guys will back me up on this one …Have a good Day all!!

Take care,
Allah hafiz

People hit back with ideas, and in the end it was decided that anyone interested can write a blog post as mentioned above, can change their blog color to green and append "Proud to be a Pakistani" to their blog names.

Teabreak.pk set up a site where everyone can post in their articles/post (even people who don't have their own blogs). The site's title is "Phir se Jeevay Pakistan".

Bloggers followed up with posts and change in blog. Some of the addresses are below:

Before Daybreak
Ali Raza Shaikh
Tehreer
Hinstance
Seed a brain

Don't forget to check out "Phir se Jeevay Pakistan" for all the articles/posts. You'll love what people have to share, and would feel the passion of independence.

Jashn-e-Azadi Mubarak.

Sab se phele Pakistan

Hmmmmm…one thing I love about Pakistan…

When I was told about this topic I got really excited. The patriotism running wild in my blood. I had recently stated that my patriotism has gotten cold somewhere along the course of my life. But suddenly hearing the planning from Rabia baji I felt maybe it hasn’t gotten that cold after all.

So I got really excited in the beginning but then I thought what would I write yaar. Everything in my mind is too childish, but well I’ll still go with it. It might be childish but these are the things that I really do love about Pakistan, my Pakistan. And I’ll go on and write more than one thing, why restrict myself?

1. I used to state to my friends “I can’t possibly live anywhere besides Pakistan”. Why? they would ask. And I would simply say “I won’t get these bun-kababs, gol-gappas and gola-gandas anywhere else”.
And believe me, this is the reason, at least one of them. Sometimes these bun-kababs seem more tastier than KFC Zinger. They do to me. And gola-gandas…. just don’t ask about them.




2. We, Pakistanis have an amazing history. This is a land which came into being without any war fought, not a war with swords and tops, but it was a war of courage, bravery and patriotism, patriotism for a country that hadn’t been born at that time, but people still had patriotism. They still loved it, without it existing. The love which led them to sacrifice everything for Pakistan. This country may have been won without any actual war, but still so many things were lost in the process. This is the beauty of this country, an amazing history depicting stories of great, brave people, who fought the fight against all odds. I love it when people talk about Quaid-e-Azam and what a great personality he was, or about Allama Iqbal and his unforgettable inspiring poetry, or any other hero and their heroic acts. This is what separates us from others but unfortunately this is exactly what we have forgotten.

3. And I love the fact, that somewhere deep down we all are patriotic people. That Pakistanis become jazbati for Pakistan. (Sometimes this characteristic of ours is used against Pakistan). That even if we keep on complaining about Pakistan, we can still find some good things to say about it. That when this idea was floated around, no body, not even a single person backed out, they all agreed to, they all loved the concept, and then they all chimed in. That we can take out time from our so-called busy schedules to pass on text messages wishing “Happy Independence”. That I could hear our National Anthem in the morning (today). That the National Anthem was followed by National Songs. That we still love hearing these songs and feel patriotism. That we are still proud of this country, our country. That no matter what we say about it, we still call it “Our Country, Our Pakistan”, the our showing our love for it.


Happy Independence!!!

The Countdown has begun.....

Yup, the countdown has begun. You ask what countdown??? If you are really asking this question then better wake up yaar, get yourself detached from your work load and look at the calendar. It's that time of the year again... yup it's August, the month when we got our independence.
But yeah I know this countdown doesn't seem as exciting as your own birthday. But I still like it when the tv channels show 10 days to go etc. I simply love this countdown.
I remember how I used to proudly attach a batch to my uniform back in school, how we sang songs in the 14th August function every year, how I decorated my home's gallery with flags and all.
Don't do that now. I guess my patriotism has damned a bit with my age.
Any ways, to honor this month, I have changed the look of my blog. It's the month when you see green flags everywhere, and thus my blog should reflect it. :)

Happy Independence Month!!! :)

And yeah, 6 days to go. :D

Class of 2008

Last Saturday, this time, I was getting ready for my convocation.
Finally.... the day I have waited for my entire life.
I also wanted to be there, you know, up on the stage, receiving a degree amidst ceiling-bursting clapping. But I never got a chance in school or college. And prayed that they don't decide not to have it after Bachelors as well. But thankfully, they didn't, in fact we got our convocation the next month we graduated. And I was so so excited. I got through the entire week just thinking that I have my convo on Saturday, and I'll be going for rehearsal on Friday. The rehearsal seemed charming because all of us friends will be meeting there, it wasn't like we have been apart for long, but still yaar......
Any ways, finally they day came for which I was waiting my entire life. And I was getting ready for it... But we reached a bit late, as we had anticipated that the convocation would definitely start late as the chief guest never arrive on time but well this one did, right on time. And this time I was late. But no worries, nothing very very important had happened before I reached.
First other departments were called for conferment of degree. Then it was time for the CS Batch, that would be us. We all were told to stand up and make a queue long before our turn so that we were ready when it was finally our turn. And then we all walked up on the stage... girls in the center, guys on both side and we have so many guys in our class that they made a second row behind us. So many people stood there taking our pictures.. ahh it was amazing, absolutely amazing... and our Rector conferred us the degree and said Congratulations...... it was again amazing. Four years of effort finally paid off. Those assignments, the tension of projects that got you close to killing everyone around you, the days before your exams... all of that.. all of that hard work, and wishing and praying finally paid off. We have finally graduated.
We are officially "Class of 2008".

And the day went fabulous.... there was one room where photographers were sitting so that any student can go and get himself or herself photographed.
The lunch was good too, pretty good.
And then of course, being our selves, we had our own photo session. :)

But the day ended... as all things and all days do... but it was a day thoroughly, utterly, completely enjoyed, and too it's fullest.

The next day I woke up and searched the entire news paper for a news about our convocation, I wanted the entire world to know that we have graduated that we are the "Class of 2008", but there was no news :(
Next day, my batch mate and now my colleague told me that Daily Times has published OUR news :)

When you miss your friends…..

You miss your friends at the most oddest of times.

You miss them not only when you are depressed, don’t know your way through an assignment, or you are too low for you don’t know how to deal with the things life is throwing at you. It’s not only in these moments that you miss your friends but at other occasions too, when you never imagined you would miss them, at least I never thought I would.

Some of these moments are:

• At lunch time, when you sit and eat your lunch all alone. Even when the lunch comprises of your favorite…. things just don’t seem that good when you don’t get to share it with your friends, when you don’t get to talk to them and laugh at the most silliest of jokes, and take longer to eat a sandwich that would normally take only 10 minutes, saying “yaar khana hamesha aram se khana chaye”

• When you are sifting through a magazine and you find something pretty interesting, you look around to find someone you can share it with and find no one who would be able to understand why you find it amazing.

• When it’s raining heavily outside and you don’t have anyone to walk with and enjoy the blessing.

• When you have to walk to the bus stand alone, with no one there who would listen to you complaining about buses, and your constant rambling on a topic no one has an answer to namely “Why does Karachi have such a situation of public transport?”, when you have no one who would reply to your comments with their own mustard with equal detest.

• When you watch an amazingly nice movie or a surprisingly stupid one, and you don’t have anyone around who would discuss it with you.

• When you log on to “cricinfo.com” to read up on the current match between Pakistan and India and you have no one else around who shares the same excitement and no one who doesn’t share the excitement at all and continues saying “come on yaar, we have work to do!”. (Yeah you even miss them scolding you.)

• When you buy a brand new mobile and don’t have anyone you could show off to.

• When you finally achieve something and you don’t have anyone to shake hands, deliver a hearty congratulations and then hug and hug tightly.

• When you don’t have anyone to play “Name Place Animal Thing” with to kill your time or maybe to waste it.

• When you don’t have anyone you could waste your time with right before a Final exam when you should actually be studying but realize that there are better and much more important things in life than studying like the reasons you didn’t study last night.

• When a quiz is announced in a class, you look back and don’t find a friendly face or to be more correct the face of a friend whose expressions would prove that you’ll not be the only one failing this quiz.

It’s 5:40 in the morning, and my head was roaring with the above, and so I decided I should post them on my blog. My net’s not working so I am writing these on Microsoft Office Word. Will post it as soon as possible.

(The above was written yesterday, 30th July, 2008)

Random Thought

It's true, I have finally realized, that it's not until you loose something that you realize it's importance.

Back in school, I enjoyed going to my school, even if it meant waking up early in the morning, even if it meant taking classes the entire day including classes of subjects like Sindhi and Maths (I used to hate Maths), even if it meant doing loads of homework. I still loved being there, being a part of it, having friends, having those long chat sessions with friends in the morning before the bell rang. I remember I especially got there early so that I can chat. My home was nearby, I could have easily gotten there only 5 minutes to spare, but no I reached my school early so that I can talk with my friends and have fun. Oh this brings up so many memories, that if I start writing about them it would just fade away the actual topic (the title hasn't come to me yet) :)
But still we never failed to complain about our teachers and the school management and how they fail to care about their most important assets, their students meaning us. Ten years spent complaining and moaning on things we didn't have the authority to change.

And then it was College, an addition of two years to my fantastic memories collection. Two years spent full of enjoyment. My friends and I sat together and were always found laughing. Oh those good old days. Thoroughly enjoyed.

And then it was University. I didn't realize that I was enjoying it. The first three years were okay but the last one was fabulous. I didn't know then that I would miss this place terribly once it all gets over.

And you know what the problem is. When I told anyone that this is my last year, I am wishing for it to end soon. All they had to add was "Life would be much tougher afterwards."
No one, not a single soul, gave me the tinniest of hope that things would be fine in the future too. It felt like they wanted to imply that my life would get over once this last session of my academic career gets over. Everyone made me feel like there is nothing good to look forward to. And I hated it. Come on yaar!!! (again roaming away from the topic)

Well anyways, the point is once the time passes you by with a swift you realize that it was good when you were going through it. You may not have liked it then, there may be somethings you would rather hadn't happened, but still it was good. And some part of you wishes that you could have enjoyed it more while it lasted.....

End of another inane post with no relevance to anything.... :)

Sometimes....

Sometimes you have to leave a thing that you hold important for a thing that is important,

Sometimes you have to make the right decision even if it doesn't give you an pleasure,

Sometimes you have to give up the thing you love for the thing you need...

Tair-e-la hoti

Tair-e-la hoti, us risk se maut achi,
Jis risk se aati ho parvaz mein kotahi.
-Allama Iqbal

Don't get this verse, but still loved it. Read an entire novel with the topic "Tair-e-la hoti" but still didn't get it. Should ask my mom now :)

*Friends Forever*

Sometimes you gotta run away so you can see who will run after you

Sometimes you gotta talk quietly just to see who's listening

Sometimes you gotta step into a fight just to see who's standing by your side

Sometime you gotta make a wrong decision to see who's there to fix it

Sometimes you gotta let of the one you love just to see if they love you enough to come back

and most importantly

Sometimes its not about your own self, its about those you care for

We: the ungrateful lot (Collection of Random Thoughts)

We, human beings, are amazing creatures. We are highly unpredictable. There is nothing in this world that can satisfy us. We are almost always unhappy with what we have and we are always looking for things that we don't have. Well, here by we I mean mostly ME, but I think there are a lot of people out there who are like me in this respect. Not all human beings but most of us are like this.
We should always try to bring betterment in our lives but is it necessary to have it on the expense of our happiness? We worry ourselves sick for the things that don't matter. Work hard, yes but be happy at the same time. Why not be satisfied with what you have and still work for greater things.

I have always noticed that we (again mostly me) thank other human beings a lot. Whenever someone does anything for us we thank them. That is fine, we should thank them. But why not thank Allah as well. After all, Allah is the one who really helps.

When we succeed we give the credit to ourselves, but when we loose it was all our luck. I believe in luck, I believe in what has been written. But I also believe that for some things Allah has given us the power to change. He has given us the power to make the choices and face the circumstances, enjoy the good that those choices will bring and also bear the bad that those choices might bring. But isn't success is something that Allah decided to give us for our hard work, then why not thank him too. Why does it become so hard for us to offer those 2 rakats of shukrana. But when it is defeat that we face, we never fail to blame others and then eventually qismat. Why???

Post Back: PROCOM.net 2008

It all started in our point. I had come back after volunteering at our second PROCOM. My friend, Nazia, asked me to give her the problem set and after going through it she was confident that she could have solved some of the problems. And she wanted me to make a team with her for the next PROCOM. Though I wasn't confident myself that I would be able to do anything good, but I still had no good reason to say no to her, so just for the sake of it I said Yes. And this turned out to be a very good decision, as the next year as PROCOM's internal programming competition was near Nazia asked me again, as I had already said no and, therefore, she was relying on me I couldn't say no to her now, and I thought "How worse can it be. Let's sign up, practice and then sit in the competition". After I agreed we had to look for a third member and I chose Sundus, Nazia agreed to it too. We only got a little time for practice, but still we did practice. We would sit together and solve the questions of past competitions.
Let me tell what actually happens in a programming competition. In such competitions you are given a problem set that may contain around 8 questions, and you have a time limit during which you are supposed to solve maximum questions possible. You solve it of course by making computer programs. The winners are decided on which team submitted the most questions and the time of submission. Plus, there is a penalty thing, if you first submitted a question and it was wrong then you submit it again, you are penalized for it.
So we practiced all we could. Nazia and I would sit in the point, where we wouldn't have a computer to check our solutions but we'll still come up with a logic together. The most important thing in such competitions, besides your ability to program and come up with logics, is how good you are as a team. Only one computer and one problem set is given to each team. And the victory depends on how well you utilize the scarce resources. It would all be too easy with three computers, but what makes it challenge able is how you deal with it using only one computer. If two of the group members get a logic at the same time, who would use the computer, and what would the other member do in the meantime. It all depends on the strategy you design. Ours has always been split the questions, each person would start with one question, ask for help from other members if needed, and then when she comes up with a solution, she can start using the computer.
So it all started with that PROCOM internal programming competition. All of us signed up for the competition as well as for volunteers.
And when I was in the internal competition, it felt so good, that after that all three of us longed for a programming competition to participate in. It felt sooooo good participating in a programming competition, being there, doing it... aahhh!
Khair anyways, as I said it all depends upon the strategy you design and also on the decisions you make on spot. Like in this internal competition, Nazia and I had come up with a logic together. As the computer wasn't free I started writing the program on paper, when I got the computer and finally wrote the program I got some errors, while I was trying to solve them Sundus said I am done with one more questions. And Nazia and I asked her "See we have very little time, are you confident that you'll do it, you'll write the program and it would run perfectly" and somehow, she got the guts and confidence to say "Yes" and we gave her the computer, which turned out to be a very good competition. As she sat there typing the program, Nazia and I helped her but only a little, teeny weeny bit, and it worked, we submitted the program. And then after the competition we were confident that we have lost, that we won't be able to participate in the external PROCOM as the first two teams from the internal are the ones which go to the external.
The results were to be announced in the auditorium, I was a bit down knowing we wouldn't win but still I thought we should make the most of it and so I told Nazia that we'll hoot for every team no matter if we do or don't know them and that's what we did. And then the time came for the announcement of winners of internal programming competition, the first was a team from our batch but section b the second was a seniors team the third was a team from our section, we hooted for all the teams and so I hooted for the team that came fourth as well and after a second I reaized "Wait a minute, she said Synergy, isn't that our team" and that was a great great feeling. Although we were fourth but still yaar it was our first competition and we came fourth.
And that competition got us rolling, after that we tried to participate in any programming competition we could.

This was all a lot of history.
Let's get the point now: PROCOM 2008
So this was our last PROCOM, we had to win it. But before we could win the external we had to win the internal competition. And it wasn't just Programming competition only, we wanted to submit our Final Year Project Blog Digger as well. We got selected for the software competition, our FYP Coordinator evaluated our project which had no interface, none at all, all the modules were running separately, but they were running fine, so she just ordered us to integrate them make a good interface and we are in!
But for the programming competition we had to win the internal. I had collected a lot of programming questions from the internet for practice. But we didn't get time to practice either individually or as a team. Of course, you don't have much time on your hands with FYP going on.
So we just practiced a bit, only one or two questions. Sundus and I stayed back on a Friday to practice. And then we set in the internal competition. After the competition we were in HRM's class, discussing whether we would loose or win, we didn't have our hopes high, and not really concentrating on what was being taught. In the HRM break, we went off to find Farooq, programming competition department's co-head. We found him at schon, and we shouted from above, asked him the results, he said "You people are third, a freshie team beat you yaar" I guess he was trying to embarrass us but we continued "so we are third, how many teams are going in the external" I knew universities other than ours were allowed three teams so how many from ours? and he said "Three teams"
Us: "So we are going?"
Him: "Yes. But a freshmen team beat you....."
Oh we weren't interested in that, we were just happy we won. That was another good day. I half ran, half-walked back to the class room and shouted "Sundus..... hum jeet gaye". Never mind the teacher, never mind the other students just saying "hum jeet gaye" I also dropped my teacher's papers on the way and reluctantly stopped to pick them up before I could go to Sundus.
The days passed.... without us practicing.
And finally the day came when on the next day we had PROCOM, but still we were celebrating Cheap Day and a company had come for taking Job Hiring Test. I dressed up as cheap, bunked the job hiring test so that we can make our software ready for the competition.
And then it was PROCOM Day 1.
That day we were also getting our promised scholarships. The parents of the students getting the scholarships were also invited. My parents came along with my sister. And what were we doing before the ceremony started, Sundus and I were in the lab, completely engrossed in her laptop, because the software that worked perfectly before (at least it was perfect by our standards) stopped working, errors were sprouting up every now and then and we were sorting them out, also waiting for the ceremony to start. Any ways, we got the scholarships finally. And as our software wasn't working as it should Sundus and I decided that as the programming competition's first day is just the practice session we should not attend that and be at the software competition. When I told this to Nazia I could tell by her face that she was really angry on us but she still agreed.
In the software competition too we both were trying to make the software work, people came up to us so that we can give them a presentation and we would say "Can you come later". And then though we haven't really gotten rid of all the errors we were forced to give the presentation, how long can the judges be asked to wait anyways? We gave our presentation one after the other. We got comments like "A very good idea, but the work is only initial". We tried to convince them that we have done everything possible. We got some good hints, tips and tricks like "Sell your product...."
The day ended, it started with a feeling of despair (with the software not working) and ended with a feeling that "we did okay in the software competition but what would we do in the programming competition tomorrow?"
The next day, PROCOM Day 2, I was relieved to find out that all the judgments for the software competition had been tomorrow, the software competition head had the results in his hands when he told me about the judges thing but of course he wasn't allowed to tell me the results. Now we can go for the programming competition without worry about the software competition.
HMMM.... sitting in that programming competition finally, sitting in external PROCOM Programming Competition for the first time. It started..... and then it ended, without us doing anything productive. We knew as soon as the competition ended that we have lost it, that we have missed our first and last chance to win PROCOM Programming Competition.
With long faces we left the lab and went towards the software competition lab to find out that amazingly the rest of our team wasn't there, Sundus's laptop had vanished with them. And we were worried and angry at the same time "yeh loog kahan chalay gaye?" And when we found one of them she said "Rafi bhai ne aa ke kaha hai yeh project hatao yeh laiq hee nahi hai software competition ke liye". And Sundus and I just stood there, trying to contemplate the possibility of her just trying to scare or her telling us what really happened.
Finally she said herself "I am just kidding.... We are third...." *Wide Wide smiles*
So it was a mixed feeling.... relief and joy at winning software competition, and disappointment at loosing the programming competition, the competition we had been trying to win for a long time.
I commanded my software team not to go before the results were announced. I wanted the entire team to go up there on the stage when our names were announced..... that turned out to be the wishful thinking of the century... Third positions weren't announced for any competition.
The anchor started with the software competition results... but started with the second position. Another disappointment.
Another reason to have long faces.
Any ways the day ended.
At least we came third, though even nobody at our university knew about it besides us and the people who had direct access to the results and those were few.
So we had some unknown, anonymous victory (can third position be called victory? :P)
The day ended, another chance lost, another experience gained.
We had TechElite to look forward to. Which happened to be on the very next day.

Memories I'll cherish

14 of June 2008, my last day of bachelors..... finally, done with the Open House, finally done with Blog Digger..... Four years of bachelors done, 16 years of education completed. 16 years seems a very very long time.
All these four years of bachelors, it was like "kab khatam hoon gein yeh 4 saal" In the fourth year the thoughts were "yaar buhat parh liya... 4 saal buhat hotay hain 3 saal ka bachelors hee theek tha".
And now when it has finally ended, I know there are a lot of memories I have made, a lot of things I'll miss, a lot of things I'll think about whenever I think about my university. A lot of things I'll remember... no, a lot of memories I'll cherish.

• The time when we used to bargain with the teachers while setting marks distribution. Talking like it was something we are buying rather than discussing the distribution. Saying things like "Munasib kar dein, Sir".
• Celebrating Color days in our last year. We celebrated Red day, Black day, White day... ahhh just a few days yaar we missed so many colors. Any ways, it was great, I participated in Black day, even though I HATE Black.
• The day we celebrated cheap day.... and even I got in the mood, and became cheap.. which was pretty unexpected, one of my friends Nazia stood there looking at me with her mouth agape, wondering what had gotten into me. Ahhh, celebrating cheap day, that was something :)
• When Ambreen and I used to chat just to decide what should be our next nick. Both of us would listen to English songs, choose lines from the songs and ask each other "would this be fine?" :P
• The get together at Midhat's place. We had loads and loads of fun, taking photos with funny poses :D
• The picture day. When all of us gathered at schon and took pictures, when we had our individuals pictures taken, when the entire batch gathered for the batch pic and started singing songs. Go to my previous post on picture day. :)
• When we used to sit in E1 in the seventh semester and talked as we always had the first slots free, discussing FYP, at first it was "yaar banayein to banayein kya sab kuch to phele se hee bana hua hai?" and then, when we finally got what to make it was "kaisay banaye ga itna sab kuch?" and of course there were the PMs to discuss about, and we had many other things to discuss completely irrelevant to studies. Planning the next day to celebrate, the next place to gather at, the next restaurant to hit (though we only got to hit Pizza Next and Karachi Food Centre) and many many things. The room changed to E4 in the 8th semester but the stuff was the same.
• The time we all played 'Bingo'. I didn't even know how to play Bingo, Ashba taught, it was like a class coz she used the white board to explain and believe me when I say it was the most interesting class :) And then we all played bingo. Bari mushkilon se mein aik hee game jeeti thi :P But it was a lot of fun. I also came to know that day that a couple of my friends used to play "Name Place Animal Thing" back in the initial semesters before papers as in, they had a paper in the evening and they would play Name Place in the morning instead of studying. I wanted to do the same thing, and so we decided that we too would play the game in one of the papers. In the last semester whenever one of us remembered this plan and voiced it, others would say, "nahi yaar aaj to nahi, Media mein khilein gain". But we didn't even play it in Media. But the Bingo day was fabulous. That day too has a post dedicated to it. :)
• The one hour long ride in Point. Some days were spent sleeping, some times we used the time reading books (most of the times novels rather than course books), some times the solace was used in thinking... and most of the times it was spend talking, talking continuously for one complete hour. I would remember the time when we talked only about food.
• The time when we finally got the opportunity to cross the "Quaidabad Bridge". The took a long time completing it and when it was finally done and our point crossed it all the students hooted. :D
• The time when I listened to my MP3 player in IPT lab and the next day the teacher said, looking specifically at me, "I know what was going on in the lab". I still don't know how she got to know I was listening to MP3 player, or maybe she just looked at me and as I was guilty I assumed that she was talking about me.
  
• My first and last Picnic. Definitely memorable.
• My first and last Annual Dinner, and that play.....
  

It's a long long list and I know I'll be coming back to it adding more bullets. For most of you, all these things won't sound as fun, but it was, all those days were fun. For me at least, I know my friends would relate to it. :)