Random Chusses…

In case you missed it the new Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is now out. I won’t be downloading this one because my laptop doesn’t have access to internet. But you should feel free to download and install it. It’s probably the most user friendly Linux distro out there. Get it to dual boot with your Windows XP and have fun. You’ll need to install all the video, audio codecs etc. though because they’re not included with the base install. Get it here.

Check out a review at lifehacker.

Came across this article on Muslims celebrating Eid in Poland. Apparently Muslims only consist of 0.07% of the whole population. Also mentions Ahmadis which number just 30 in Warsaw. In case you haven’t heard of Poland it’s a country in Central Europe bordered with Germany, Czech, Slovakia etc. Poland was heavily involved in World War II losing 6 million people.

Muslims all over the world finished their month-long Ramadan fast
with Eid ul-Fitr, the feast and celebration. For a month, Muslims
should not eat from sunrise to sunset. Then, a holiday similar to the
Christian Mardi Gras takes place and Eid ul-Fitr is celebrated with joy
and jubilation.

While a small minority group, Muslims have been active in Poland
since the 14 century, when Tartars settled in the Poland-Lithuania
Commonwealth. Under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Tartars were, in
exchange for military service, able to freely practice Islam.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth granted the Tartar communities,
numbering approximately 17,000 for a total population of 8 million in
the 17 century, internal autonomy and the freedom to practice their
religion. Additionally, the May Constitution granted Tartars
representation in the lower house of parliament, the Sejm.

This population, known as the Lipka Tartars, enjoyed their freedoms
and formulated a distinctly Central European Muslim culture. They also
gradually integrated into Polish society, so much so, that in the early
part of the twentieth century, when Poles were mass-migrating west, a
significant portion of this population joined them, opening a mosque in
Brooklyn that is still active today.

Read the rest here.

So I came across this picture on Pakwheels explaining what the OD (Over Drive) is for, in Toyota Vitz 2004 automatic.

Zen driven development - "You don't drive the development, the development drives you."

This is the kind of development we should be doing. The development should be driving us not the other
way around.

Complete list of A to Z of Software Methodologies.

My annual visit to Pakistan every year is full of surprises. What change
will I find this time? I asked myself as I landed at Karachi airport a
few weeks ago.

The situation in Pakistan is more complex than
I’ve ever seen. The economy is in crisis with basic food costs so high
that one wonders how the ordinary person feeds a family. The elite
don’t care because most of them have taken dual nationality and
siphoned their money out of Pakistan. The poor keep getting poorer and
complain that no one in power has ever cared about them, so why should
they care this time?

What bothered me most of all was the attitude of educated middle-class Pakistanis.

In the past few years I had noticed the rise of religious fervor among previously moderate
Pakistanis. This time I was engulfed and bombarded by conspiracy
theories everywhere I turned. At times I felt I was an alien in my own
land.

From media to mullahs, everyone seems to thrive on their version of
who the enemy is. A friend (who by the way is a Canadian citizen and
extremely well educated) proceeded to inform me “this is the sixth part
of the Zionist conspiracy to wipe out Pakistan.”

She was keen to educate me on the “other five,” but I excused myself and left — only
to find myself at dinner with a group who were convinced that it’s all
an Indian plot. The third visit was just as trying because these were
my cousins who told me that Pakistan is victim of a triad — the U.S.,
India and Israel — that was conniving to wipe Pakistan off the map.
Everyone is to blame except themselves.

By this time I stopped going out and decided to stay home and see what’s happening on TV.

Well, that was a wrong move.

On mainstream television, a well-educated, smart and eloquent young
scholar speaks every evening at prime time about U.S. plans to invade
Pakistan, and everyone is glued to their sets, absorbing this garbage.
It’s on this mainstream network a panel of scholars announced that the
killing of Ahmadiyya Muslims is justified.

The alternative, progressive, moderate Muslim voice is relegated to midnight and I was
told chillingly that he’s a western mole and the TV station that airs
his program has been bought by the United States.

It’s no surprise then, that a few days later in the midst of this chaos,
Pakistanis chose Mr. Ten Per Cent as their president. Asif Ali Zardari,
widower of the slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, now sits
smilingly, with a complete makeover, as president of Pakistan.

It’s an astounding comeback for a man who spent 11 years in jail on
corruption and murder charges as one of Pakistan’s most disliked
figures.

More surprising, the corruption charges against Zardari
that were dismissed ranged from allegations that he took $10 million in
kickbacks from a gold importing company to allegations that he
improperly used government funds to build a polo ground at the prime
minister’s residence in Islamabad.

Having put this into perspective, let’s not discount this individual completely. Zardari is
the son of an astute landlord and politician, Hakim Ali Zardari. Like
Dennis Thatcher, Asif Ali Zardari has lived and learned from the most
vibrant and brilliant of politicians — Benazir Bhutto. Zardari has
cunningly aligned himself with the right people and is making carefully
crafted moves.

Furthermore, the alternative to Zardari is the army, which has
already ruled for half of Pakistan’s existence, destroying civilian and
public institutions. So, while Zardari may make diplomatic faux pas
like trying to flirt with U.S. vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin,
he may be the poison Pakistan needs to heal itself.

Painful as it may seem, Pakistan has to go through a process of democracy. Pakistanis
must pull themselves out of a deep dark hole of victimization to
realize what’s hit them, and then make a decision (without foreign
intervention, please and thanks) to keep or get rid of Zardari.

Only then will a cycle of true democracy begin, and will there be hope for the future.

Raheel Raza is an intercultural and interfaith diversity consultant and author of Their Jihad … Not My Jihad.

In case you haven’t noticed or you’re not living in Pakistan the power outages or load shedding as its popularly called have reached new levels. Even in big cities there’s no power for at least 12 hours per day. Basically its off and on every hour. In small cities the situation is of course, much worse. At night Pakistan is in total darkness. So the Awam have started some rioting and protests all over the country. The energy crisis seems to have gone from bad to worse this year. They say that most of Pakistan’s power is hydroelectric and fossil. This fossil stuff is the local and imported gas and oil. Apparently the hydel power has gone down because in winter the river water flows are not what they are supposed to be. The president and the prime minister have ‘instructed’ the authorities to get a grip on this crisis. Businesses are losing money. People are losing patience. If you ask me we should get used to the current state of affairs or get one of those UPS’s. Those things are selling like hot cakes…

I guess most of you have heard this unbelievable news by now. India has inflicted a crushing defeat upon the once mighty Aussies. Their biggest margin of victory ever. Quite shocking stuff. Many people were not pleased when they read the article titled Almighty Who? on CricInfo the other day.  Even though its generally considered very hard to beat India in India but after this huge defeat it seems clear that Australia is not the force they used to be. The loss of so many legends seems to have crippled Ricky Ponting’s side. Their bowling looked especially weak. And unusually India was the more aggressive side.

For the Indian side Tendulkar became the highest scorer in test cricket. Ganguly was able to get a hundred too. Zaheer Khan and Harbajhan Singh were able to make a good comeback. Mishra, the debutant leggie was able to get wickets. And most of all, the new captain Dhoni got man of the match.

The Australians had nothing much to show. Lee, their spearhead was pretty useless and without him their bowling suffered. Johnson and the new comers had to do something which they unable to do. It would be interesting to see how they make a come back in Delhi in a week.

The Khadija Mosque was inaugurated yesterday by the Fifth Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Berlin, Germany. This is the first mosque of its kind in East Germany complete with a dome and a minaret.There had been a lot of protests by residents when the announcement to build the mosque was made back in 2006. Apparently some Germans don’t like mosques with minarets and domes. Some were afraid of the five times call to prayer over their rooftops. It’s interesting to note that Ahmadis are not allowed the call to prayer in Muslim countries like Pakistan. Eventually, however the government allowed the mosque to be built.

It was originally slated to be constructed in 1923 with the chandas gathered from the Lajna (women) wing of the Jamaat but postponed due to the economic crisis of the time. So around 85 years later, again during a global economic crisis, the Lajna members of the Ahmadiyya Jamaat provided all the €1,700,000 that were spent on the mosque and its surroundings which include a guest house, library, conference room etc.

Check out the AP report here.

LankaWeb Comments.

A hilarious satirical site called PalinAsPresident.com has popped up on the web. Its an interactive site poking fun at Sarah Palin, the Republican VP nominee showing Palin sitting in the Oval Office. Click on different stuff and see what happens…

According to the Vista Blog the next Windows is heading your way (in 2010 probably) called ‘Windows 7′. They’ve changed the naming scheme this time round for some reason. Instead of the catchy and meaningless names like XP and Vista its called ‘7′. So now Windows OS will be referred to as just ‘7′. I do hope, that 7 has something to offer to the majority of users (including me) who haven’t bothered to upgrade their XP installations to 6 or Vista as its called. I have actually thought about it but it never seemed worth all the hassle. According to this blog entry its to celebrate and hopefully reproduce their last success, Windows XP which was released 7 years ago. Truth be told I don’t really care. I’m hoping Ubuntu would have taken over the world by then.

By the way there’s the annual Microsoft PDC from Oct 27-30 in case you’re a Microsoft developer and in the US. More details on 7 and what it means for developers will be provided. Beware though, the site crashes Firefox. I don’t think its compatible with open source software…