The Collective for Social Science Research's Dr. Kaiser Bengali recently discussed Pakistan's recent economic performance with The News on Sunday. It makes and interesting read and, thanks to the basic grounding I got in macroeconomics in my MBA, makes sense too.
Toshiba M700 Live Un-boxing
Earlier today, GBM's Matt Faulkner did a live un-boxing of the Toshiba M700 tablet PC (via Ustream). What was really cool, though, was that I took part in it by asking Matt some questions which he then answered. And though that's not quite as cool as having access to the M700 myself, it was certainly better than nothing. (Matt: if you read this, thanks a million.)
I'm now almost a hundred percent certain that this'll be the tablet PC that I buy for myself a few months from now. The question I now need to answer is: what hardware configuration do I go for? Unfortunately, that doesn't have an easy answer.
As Faulkner mentioned in his video, for example, going from the 2.4Ghz to the 2.6Ghz processor actually increases the price of the tablet by about US$300. On the other hand, when you went from the 2.2Ghz to the 2.4Ghz, that was only a US$100 price increase. I wonder, then, how much of a difference that additional 0.2GHz (to get to 2.6GHz) actually makes. This is something I need to investigate.
I also need to investigate Turbo Memory some more (the current consensus seems to be that it's not worth it) and I wonder whether it's worth it to get 4GB or RAM (or 3GB, or should I just stick with 3GB?). Fortunately, those questions -- and their answers -- don't need to be addressed for another six months or so. And by then, things might be different (and someone may already have answered them).
Meanwhile, Aaron Hall just got his hands on the M700 and he's posted a review of it on his blog.
The Police - Live in Concert!
So yesterday (Australia Day 2008), Nadia and I watched The Police live in concert at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG).
Nadia's already written one blog post about it -- and I suspect she's going to write one or two more -- so go there for most of the concert information. I'm just here to upload a few photographs. Oh, and for completeness' sake, to document the complete set list:
- Message in a Bottle
- Synchronicity II
- Walking On The Moon
- Voices Inside My Head
- When The World Is Running Down
- Don't Stand So Close To Me
- Driven To Tears
- Hole In My Life
- Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
- Wrapped Around Your Finger
- De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
- Invisible Sun
- Walking In Your Footsteps
- Can't Stand Losing You
- Roxanne
- King Of Pain
- Encore 1: So Lonely
- Every Breath You Take
- Encore 2: Next To You
Coming back to the photographs, here's a photo of one the opening acts, Fiction Plane, performing (not that you can see the band clearly, but still). This is a couple of hours before The Police started their set, by the way, which is why it's still light out. I took a photo of Fergie's performance as well, but that came out all blurry.
Impressive stage, isn't it? And it's not even lit up yet! Here's what it looked like from the side. Note the threatening rain clouds.
The Met Office had predicted thunderstorms for that evening but fortunately, other than it being a humid night, there wasn't any rain in that part of the city.
Finally, here's a photo taken during the first song (Message in a Bottle).
I didn't take too many photographs after that, and the few that I did take aren't all that good. That's okay, though: I was there to watch and enjoy the show, not document it!
All in all, it was a fabulous concert. And, once it's up, I'll post a link to the concert review that The Age will inevitable publish.
Geeky Home Cinemas
Deputy Dog has a list of 10 Stunning Ultra-Geeky Home Cinemas. Being a geek myself, I fully intend to build me one of those as soon as I can afford it -- though I probably won't go as far as these people have. Mine will based on the bridge of the Enterprise D, of course -- a bit like #5 on the list -- but it'll be a lot simpler and a lot more practical. Something like this, maybe:
Check back with me in about five years and I'll let you know how it turned out :)
Toshiba M700 Now Available in Australia
The Toshiba M700 -- currently my first choice tablet PC -- is now available in Australia from various Toshiba Resellers. Unfortunately, that's an off-the-shelf unit that is less powerful, non-configurable (except for a RAM upgrade), and higher priced than the models available in the US.
Fortunately, you don't have to order it from there. Thanks to the good folk at Tablet PC Review forums, I've discovered that you can order a higher spec-ed machine from the US and have it shipped to Australia for a considerably lower price from Portable One.
Also on those forums is a good hands-on comparison between the Fujitsu T4220 and the Toshiba M700 -- one in which the Toshiba comes out in front. Mostly covered in that comparison are the five reasons why the Toshiba has recently trumped the Fujitsu as my first choice tablet PC: the M700 has (1) a faster processor, (2) a wide-screen display, (3) a backlit LCD display, (4) a touch screen, and (5) the option to upgrade to a 7,200 RPM hard drive. The inclusion of a webcam is a bonus.
Wolfgang's Vault, Police Tour
Next Saturday Nadia and I will watch The Police live in concert at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). While looking for news, information, set lists, and videos of the current tour I found two interesting things:
Tracking Tours
First, the place to go to for the low down on The Police's 2007-2008 tour is this blog. It contains set lists, reviews, and videos and is, basically, the perfect way for us to get all psyched-up for the upcoming concert.
While I was there, by the way, I discovered that other bands' tours have been documented in a similar fashion. And after going through those sites, I now really want to go to a Bruce Springsteen concert as well.
Wolfgang's Vault
Second I discovered...well, a gold mine of live music in the form of Wolfgang's Vault, the largest online collection of historical concert recordings (and musician interviews). Ranging from concerts performed between 1960 and the late 1980s (so far), the Vault lets you stream thousands of hours of audio for free over the Internet (though you need to register with the site first) and the number of artists up there is immense. I've just spent the last couple of hours listening to Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Police, Peter Gabriel, and Tracy Chapman to name just a few. This site is awesome! :)
FYI: Bill Graham (originally, Wolfgang Grajonca, hence the nickname which then became the site's name) was a music promoter who virtually invented the modern concert business in the 1960s [1]. Graham died in 1991 and, in 2003, an entrepreneur by the name of Bill Sagan bought Graham's entire archive of music and memorabilia for over $5m. He's since starting putting all of the audio bits online (legally, of course) where anyone can access it. You can read more about it on Wikipedia.
If there's only one website you visit this week -- and assuming you're a big music fan -- make sure it's this one.
Zeb & Haniya in Newsweek
There's an article on Zeb and Haniya in this week's Newsweek! And their long-awaited album is out next month :)
Bummer: tx2000 Out of the Running
Tablet PC Review's Tiffany Boggs has reviewed the HP tx2000 tablet PC and she likes it:
The tx2000 is going to be a hit with all the mainstream users. HP gave this model just what it needed. The active digitizer and touchscreen make this a true Tablet PC now, but it still maintains the entertainment notebook status unlike any other model on the market at this time.
I would agree with her completely: it sounds like a really cool machine. And yet...and yet, it is out of the running as the tablet PC that I will buy [1]. Why? Because it meets one of my deal-breaker conditions: no Page Up and Page Down keys on the bottom right hand side of the keyboard:
(Picture from the Tablet PC Review, er, review mentioned above)
And this from a wide screen laptop!
Why is this a deal-breaker for me? Because working with text documents (i.e. doing lots of typing) is one of my primary activities on my laptop and I simply cannot work without the Page Up and Page Down keys on the bottom right hand side of the keyboard (or even in a vertical line along right hand side). I know I can't because I tried, with little success, for about a year on a laptop that I got from work. And so there it is: one more tablet PC eliminated from the running.
By the way, the other keyboard problem that has always irritated me, but I've found that I can adjust to, is having the Function key as the bottom leftmost key. I much prefer having the Control key in that corner, with the Function key immediately to its right -- the way it is in the tx2000 keyboard, in fact -- but I can live with it not being that way.
I'm also worried about having to use a track stick (like in the Lenovo X61t) instead of a track pad -- since I've never used a track stick for an extended period of time before -- but I'm sure I'll get used to it. As it is, I generally use a separate optical mouse most of the time anyway. The issue only comes up now because I expect to be a lot more mobile with my tablet PC and so I won't have space to use the separate mouse (and I can't use my finger or the pen all the time either).
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[1] I'm nearing the end of my MBA (I graduate exactly four months from today) and, assuming I get a job within a month of graduating, it is highly likely that I will be seriously researching and preparing to purchase a tablet PC for myself about six months from now! :)
Blogging Sites Banned in Pakistan...Again
The Emergency Times is reporting that popular free blogging sites like Blogspot/Blogger and WordPress have been banned in Pakistan. That means those URLs have been blocked at the Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE), which is the only point of contact that almost all Pakistanis have with the 'net since all ISPs are required to route their traffic through it. For more on this, check out the Wikipedia article: Internet Censorship in Pakistan.
Of course, as anyone who is familiar with the Internet knows, blocking (or filtering) URLs in that way is pretty much useless. There are always workarounds. In fact, The Emergency Times lists two:
And there are many, many more. Just search for "anonymizer" on any search engine.
Of course, as anyone who is familiar with the Internet knows, blocking (or filtering) URLs in that way is pretty much useless. There are always workarounds. In fact, The Emergency Times lists two:
And there are many, many more. Just search for "anonymizer" on any search engine.
More on the HP TX2000
Finally, there's some more information on the web about HP's new TX2000 tablet PC (i.e. not just specs). Again, it's thanks to the GottaBeMobile.com crew at CES 2008 and, as with the Toshiba M700 (which I wrote about earlier), they've done a quick hands-on video review of it.
Stuff learnt from this video: (1) it's a multimedia tablet aimed squarely at the consumer market; (2) it is a little heavy, though; (3) the multi-touch features seem to work well and the wide screen display seems really nice; (4) it has some nifty multimedia features like a TV tuner, S-video output, Altec Lansing speakers, and a video camera; and (5) it has a 64-bit, dual-core AMD Turion processor. Other than that, it's a pretty standard tablet PC. Oh, and it's pretty decent on the pricing too, coming to about US$2,500 for a maxed-out version (while a maxed-out Toshiba is for about US$2,600).
However, as with the Toshiba, I can't wait for GBM to do full hardware Inkshow on this machine. I'm also looking forward to GBM's Dell XT Inkshow. Once all three go up, I'll do a side-by-side comparison of my current top-five -- the Lenovo ThinkPad X61T, Fujitsu LifeBook T4220, Toshiba Portege M700, HP Pavilion Tx2000z, and Dell Latitude XT -- and see how they stack up against each other. That should be fun.
Stuff learnt from this video: (1) it's a multimedia tablet aimed squarely at the consumer market; (2) it is a little heavy, though; (3) the multi-touch features seem to work well and the wide screen display seems really nice; (4) it has some nifty multimedia features like a TV tuner, S-video output, Altec Lansing speakers, and a video camera; and (5) it has a 64-bit, dual-core AMD Turion processor. Other than that, it's a pretty standard tablet PC. Oh, and it's pretty decent on the pricing too, coming to about US$2,500 for a maxed-out version (while a maxed-out Toshiba is for about US$2,600).
However, as with the Toshiba, I can't wait for GBM to do full hardware Inkshow on this machine. I'm also looking forward to GBM's Dell XT Inkshow. Once all three go up, I'll do a side-by-side comparison of my current top-five -- the Lenovo ThinkPad X61T, Fujitsu LifeBook T4220, Toshiba Portege M700, HP Pavilion Tx2000z, and Dell Latitude XT -- and see how they stack up against each other. That should be fun.
The Arabization of Islam
Fatemeh Fakhraieon has written an excellent article on altmuslim on the Arabization of Islam:
Since the original Muslims were mostly Arab, everything associated with them - their culture, names, and family structures - has been associated with Islam. But this presents a problem since the vast majority of Muslims in our current world are not Arab. Passing off Arab culture as Islam in this regard is inaccurate, exclusionary, and disrespectful of other Muslims' cultures.
Converts to Islam illustrate the issue even further. If a Latina converts to Islam, for example, she may decide (or those at the local mosque may urge her) to take a "Muslim" name, like Fatima or Khadija (which are also Arab names). But why can't Lucinda be a Muslim name? What makes a name "Muslim"?
I know of many non-Arab converts who have taken Arab names upon their conversion. But why? What's wrong with the names their parents gave them? There isn't anything in the Holy Qur'an that mandates Muslims to have Arab names. Changing your name from Carmelita to Khadija isn't going to get you into Paradise any quicker. Changing one's name doesn't change one's ethnicity or personality. But having an Arab name makes one seem more "Muslim," because of the way Arab culture is seen as synonymous with Islam.
Another excellent example is clothing, which mostly affects Muslim women. The niqab (the face-veil) was rarely seen outside of the Arabian Gulf until recently. Most Muslims see the niqab as a byproduct of Arab culture. It is only recently that the niqab has been interpreted as religiously authentic instead of a cultural expression. A minority of women in Canada, the U.S., and Europe now wear niqab because they believe it is religiously mandated.
...
The real danger is that Islam is getting buried under all this cultural expression. It is possible to be Muslim without being Middle Eastern, without having a name like Mohammed, and without wearing dishdashas (the long robe worn by most men in the Arabian Gulf states) or niqabs. We should reconsider why Arab-ness is, all of a sudden, next to godliness.
Fakhraieon also runs Muslimah Media Watch and contributes to Racialicious, neither of which I knew about but both of which sound very interesting.
Of Tea and Tetris
Tea and Tetris are the master keys to my life.
Let's take tea first. What do I do to wake myself up? I have a cup of tea. What do I do to relax? I have a cup of tea. What do I do when I'm tired, I've eaten too much (or too little), I'm watching TV, am on the computer, or am working? At the start and end of things? In order to celebrate? When I'm getting really to have a really good discussion with someone? Or even when I have nothing to do? I have cup of tea. Tea is a constant. Tea is everything.
Yes, coffee, Pepsi, and Coke are all valid alternatives -- and they're sometimes exactly what I need and want -- but there's nothing quite as smooth and gentle, yet strong and powerful, and as...default as tea. Meanwhile, coffee can be bitter, harsh, overly strong, really weak, or really milky while carbonated drinks can be sharp and over-carbonated. And yes, tea can be weak or milky...but, dammit, cold or hot, milky or not, tea it's tea!
Oh, and if you want something even smoother and gentler than black tea, there's green tea, other types of tea (English breakfast, Earl Grey, etc.), and many, many flavoured teas to choose from.
Then there's Tetris: the be-all and end-all of work life. What do I do to energize myself for work? I play Tetris. What do I do to relax my brain? I play Tetris. What do I do when I'm on the phone, in order to stay awake, while I'm uploading/downloading large files, while listening to a podcast, or simply to mitigate boredom? I play Tetris.
Tea and Tetris: what would I do without them?
Thank you China/Burma/India and Alexey Pajitnov.
All Corduroy Songs Now Online
From 2003 to 2004 I was in an English rock music band called Corduroy. We were pretty successful -- as successful as an unsigned, underground, English music playing rock band based in Islamabad, Pakistan can be -- and we even released an album, called 'The Morning After'.
For reasons that I've explained on this page, I still maintain the website that I made for the band. Recently, though, I've uploaded our entire album to MediaFire. The production quality isn't the greatest, but the songs are good.
More on the Toshiba M700
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the newly-launched, really exciting Toshiba M700 tablet PC. Since the touch screen version of that is due to be launched by the end of this month, no reviews of it have been posted on the 'net so far. However, thanks to GottaBeMobile.com's coverage of CES 2008, there is now a quick hands-on video of it and a brief discussion on it with Toshiba's Kevin Roberts.
A number of cool things about the M700 emerged from that discussion: (1) the optical drive has an auto lock feature that disables the CD/DVD eject button when the tablet is in motion; (2) the widescreen LCD looks really good; (3) the inking experience seems to be pretty good; (4) the weight distribution on the tablet is pretty good; (5) it is a powerful, full-featured machine; and (6) it has an excellent price point.
I can't wait for a proper hands-on hardware review of a production system. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long.
A number of cool things about the M700 emerged from that discussion: (1) the optical drive has an auto lock feature that disables the CD/DVD eject button when the tablet is in motion; (2) the widescreen LCD looks really good; (3) the inking experience seems to be pretty good; (4) the weight distribution on the tablet is pretty good; (5) it is a powerful, full-featured machine; and (6) it has an excellent price point.
I can't wait for a proper hands-on hardware review of a production system. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long.
Excellent Health Advice
Some excellent health advice from Michael Pollan, author of 'In Defense of Food':
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
That's the advice journalist and author Michael Pollan offers in his new book, In Defense of Food.
"That's it. That is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy," Pollan tells Steve Inskeep.
Two Good Articles on Pakistan: Fisk, Hamid
I came across two good articles on Pakistan today.
The first, 'They don't blame al-Qa'ida. They blame Musharraf' by Robert Fisk (thanks, Ayesha) talks about the ISI (i.e. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) and about how:
The second, 'It's Troubled, But It's Home' by Mohsin Hamid,is completely different. It's a much more personal article, written from the perspective of a Pakistani expatriate:
Which then ends on a positive note:
If you get the chance, do read both of them.
The first, 'They don't blame al-Qa'ida. They blame Musharraf' by Robert Fisk (thanks, Ayesha) talks about the ISI (i.e. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) and about how:
...Yesterday, our television warriors informed us the PPP members shouting that Musharraf was a "murderer" were complaining he had not provided sufficient security for Benazir. Wrong. They were shouting this because they believe he killed her.
The second, 'It's Troubled, But It's Home' by Mohsin Hamid,is completely different. It's a much more personal article, written from the perspective of a Pakistani expatriate:
...As my wife and I board our flight from London to Lahore, evident all around us is a longing for home -- for the friends and family who are central to Pakistani culture in a way that many foreigners find so remarkable. (As an admiring American roommate of mine once said, "All you guys do is hang out.") This duality of Pakistan as a place both troubled and normal, a place capable of producing a large diaspora while also affectionately tugging at those who have left, is often lost on the world's media. International news outlets tend to cast Pakistan as the one-dimensional villain of a horror film, a kind of Jason or Freddie whose only role is to frighten. Scant attention is paid to the hospitality, the love for music and dance, or the simple ordinariness of 164 million people going about their daily lives.
Which then ends on a positive note:
In the United States, there will be newspaper columns and television talk shows dedicated to "loose nukes" and the "war on terror." Here in Pakistan, one can see signs of people coming together. Scare stories notwithstanding, it is possible (although by no means certain) that out of this tragedy the world's sixth-largest nation may succeed in finding its voice -- and with that the chance for a better future.
If you get the chance, do read both of them.
A Little Perspective: Defending Musharraf
Jonathan Power wrote a really good article in the Toronto Star yesterday in which he rightly defended President Musharraf:
Read the whole article; Power makes a good point. Though, really, most of us Pakistanis didn't expect much "democracy" from Bhutto anyway. Her post-herself PPP succession plan being the ultimate case in point.
And we have no problems in conceding that Musharraf has been good for the country. I mean, can you imagine what life would have been like under anyone else? Present circumstances excepted, of course. Though, if you think about it, it's all those good years that make the present situation seem that much worse don't they? For example, had we not had a totally free press for the last five years, would we have missed not having one now? And had things not been so good in the last five years, would college students from across the nation have known enough or cared enough to actually protest the Emergency? Heck, had things not been better for the country, at least half of those students would have been in the US anyway!
My point is: all this is worth thinking about before we completely dismiss Musharraf and, in a catastrophic error of judgement, let the crooks back into the country and into a position of power. I hate to say it but, for now at least, the only way that I see us getting out of this mess is to keep Musharraf on as President. Without him -- and, really, without the military providing a constant threat and counterbalance -- our mostly corrupt and mostly useless politicians will, yet again, screw the country over and we'll be back to square one. Again.
And if not that, the only other way out is via a provisional government and the restoration of the judiciary. The real, honest, and just judiciary; not the sham one they've got in there right now. That's the key, though, isn't it? The Rule of Law. We've never really had it -- not in the last 4,000 years at least -- and until we get it and keep it for at least three generations, we'll never actually break away from our feudal, kingly, and dictatorial past.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf gets a bad press; Benazir Bhutto a too kind one. Which of them is the real rogue?
When Musharraf, as Pakistan's top army commander, tried to engineer war with India over Kashmir in 1999, he demonstrated his roguish side. Yet even many of his opponents in Pakistan will concede that since he deposed Nawaz Sharif and assumed power he has been largely a benevolent dictator.
Read the whole article; Power makes a good point. Though, really, most of us Pakistanis didn't expect much "democracy" from Bhutto anyway. Her post-herself PPP succession plan being the ultimate case in point.
And we have no problems in conceding that Musharraf has been good for the country. I mean, can you imagine what life would have been like under anyone else? Present circumstances excepted, of course. Though, if you think about it, it's all those good years that make the present situation seem that much worse don't they? For example, had we not had a totally free press for the last five years, would we have missed not having one now? And had things not been so good in the last five years, would college students from across the nation have known enough or cared enough to actually protest the Emergency? Heck, had things not been better for the country, at least half of those students would have been in the US anyway!
My point is: all this is worth thinking about before we completely dismiss Musharraf and, in a catastrophic error of judgement, let the crooks back into the country and into a position of power. I hate to say it but, for now at least, the only way that I see us getting out of this mess is to keep Musharraf on as President. Without him -- and, really, without the military providing a constant threat and counterbalance -- our mostly corrupt and mostly useless politicians will, yet again, screw the country over and we'll be back to square one. Again.
And if not that, the only other way out is via a provisional government and the restoration of the judiciary. The real, honest, and just judiciary; not the sham one they've got in there right now. That's the key, though, isn't it? The Rule of Law. We've never really had it -- not in the last 4,000 years at least -- and until we get it and keep it for at least three generations, we'll never actually break away from our feudal, kingly, and dictatorial past.
Spiraling Downwards...
Speaking of the situation in Pakistan, things seem to be getting only worse. The Asian Human Rights Commission just published a statement on the how Asma Jehangir's daughters were assaulted and threatened that you should read [Via The Emergency Times].
The AHRC has also published a good overview on the fundamentals of what is happening on in Pakistan these days. And though it comes across as sounding a little sensationalist:
Everything that the article says is, unfortunately, true.
The AHRC has also published a good overview on the fundamentals of what is happening on in Pakistan these days. And though it comes across as sounding a little sensationalist:
This is what Pakistan has become. It is a draconian military state and uses anti terrorism as a pretext to strengthen itself and to oust the rule of law. In essence it is a lawless place where any act of cruelty to any person at all, be it a leading politician or a chief justice, can be done with impunity. Those are the conditions under which the ordinary Pakistanis have to live and must adjusted themselves to.
Everything that the article says is, unfortunately, true.
Higher Education in Pakistan
A couple of months ago I wrote about how, as it turns out, things in Pakistan aren't going as well as we thought they were. Pervez Hoodbhoy, one of Pakistan's leading scientists recently wrote an article in Dawn that dispels the myth the the Government of Pakistan is actually fixing up our higher education system. It's an excellent two-part article of which this is the first part. I'll post a link to part two when it gets published.
(Note: You can find some of Hoodbhoy's other articles in Chowk.)
(Note: You can find some of Hoodbhoy's other articles in Chowk.)
Benazir Bhutto Assassinated...
I can't think of anything to say. Besides, everyone else is already saying it -- and saying it much better than I ever could.
All political ramifications aside, though, my thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes go out to Bhutto's family. I know how hard it is to lose a loved one; especially a mother. And the more public that person is, the harder it must be for close family since any sendoff that you might want to give your loved one is inevitably hijacked by everyone else. I hope her family -- especially her children -- are hanging in there.
All political ramifications aside, though, my thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes go out to Bhutto's family. I know how hard it is to lose a loved one; especially a mother. And the more public that person is, the harder it must be for close family since any sendoff that you might want to give your loved one is inevitably hijacked by everyone else. I hope her family -- especially her children -- are hanging in there.