Wikimedia Foundation

I use wordpress a lot and I want it to stay available all my life. Though I cannot provide any donations to it but I can spread their word.

An appeal from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales

I got a lot of funny looks ten years ago when I started talking to people about Wikipedia.

Let’s just say some people were skeptical of the notion that volunteers from all across the world could come together to create a remarkable pool of human knowledge – all for the simple purpose of sharing.

No ads. No agenda. No strings attached.

A decade after its founding, nearly 400 million people use Wikipedia and its sister sites every month – almost a third of the Internet-connected world.

It is the 5th most popular website in the world – but Wikipedia isn’t anything like a commercial website. It is a community creation, written by volunteers making one entry at a time. You are part of our community. And I’m writing today to ask you to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

Together, we can keep it free of charge and free of advertising. We can keep it open – you can use the information in Wikipedia any way you want. We can keep it growing – spreading knowledge everywhere, and inviting participation from everyone.

Each year at this time, we reach out to ask you and others all across the Wikimedia community to help sustain our joint enterprise with a modest donation of $20, $35, $50 or more.

If you value Wikipedia as a source of information – and a source of inspiration – I hope you’ll choose to act right now.

All the best,

Jimmy Wales

Founder, Wikipedia

P.S. Wikipedia is about the power of people like us to do extraordinary things. People like us write Wikipedia, one word at a time. People like us fund it, one donation at a time. It’s proof of our collective potential to change the world.

To make donations visit this page…

Thanking you all

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my wife, Mehwish, who became my life partner on 6th November 2009. I may not be at my best for the whole last year and I might have never understood her most of the time, but she was always beside me every day and on every step.

I’ll always remember The day I married you,

Without you my love, I don’t know what I’d do.

Your loving and thoughtful; just to mention too,

I adore your sweet smile; it makes me want you.

Happy Anniversary

Mehwish, this post is dedicated just for you. I may not have enough and I may not understand basics; but I promise for much more and I can do that only with you, sweetheart.

Love you Forever & Ever

[Sport] Once in a blue moon

These are the words which came in my mind when I saw the scorecard of 2nd Test match between Pakistan & Australia in July 2010. The scorecard looked like:

This is not what you see frequently for Pakistan. For a Pakistani cricket fan, this scorecard can be some source of joy & happiness. Our cricket team has seen lot of troughs in their cycle and even a small crest (once in a blue moon) brings great hopes in Pakistani hearts. Last time Pakistan defeated Australia in a test match was in November 1995 and this test match just broke the chain of failures against Australia. Not only this, Pakistan outplayed Australia in both T20 matches prior to the test series. Overall the complete series (T20 + Test) have been positive for Pakistan. One never expected that but hey this might be a start of a new era in Pakistan cricket team. Good luck Pakistan cricket team for the upcoming series against England.

A lot has been happening around the world which involves Pakistan in bad sense; the result of which is people here are moving away from it and are leaving Pakistan to find success in their lives. But having said that, the achievements what Pakistan can attain brings patriotism back in our hearts and we again decide to do something for our country which we got in the name of Allah (our creator) and we hope that it will stay for ever and ever. Long live Pakistan.

Stay Low & Start Slow…

I took my mother for her routine checkup of her foot to CMH (Combined Military Hospital). While the doctor was examining her foot, I was examining his desktop (table, I mean; most people might think his computer’s desktop ); where I came across this quote.

To succeed; Stay low and start slow

This quotation was with a picture of Hare and Tortoise getting ready for a race. It immediately popped up in my mind that how true it is. I have seen people in my life who go for some objective with great publicity and very quickly before preparing themselves and most of them get dirt on their faces. There are rare cases but we are not targeting exceptions here. This is one thing, I have learned from my experiences that to achieve any goal, we must stay on low profile and should not open our mouth at anything, neither we should commit any thing without doing any planning or following any strategy. We should be silent in start, gather requirements and stuff; let the other person speak their heart out. And when we have everything, with which we can work something; then there is no stopping. Move gradually towards your goal and keep everyone involved updated with little milestones. We should not brag with great exaggeration about small milestones that we have done a great job so far and need some rest; we will end up losing the race just like the Hare. We should keep our profile low and deliver big & complete thing at the end.

Sometimes, big lessons come from small quotations and old stories. I am having a great time managing and correcting myself where I have or could have gone wrong in my profession; hopefully someone reading this might do so as well.

Happy staying low and starting slow

Life is a Rubik’s Cube

I have been thinking a lot, while solving my Rubik’s Cube (which I got as a gift from my brothers on my birthday) and I have deduced to my own conclusion that just like Rubik’s Cube, life is also all about putting same colors together. As Shakespeare said:

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

Similarly, at any particular age every man or woman interacts with players of other ages. The one has activities, responsibilities which no one other can fully perform. At some time, you are very dependent on others and at some time all are dependent on you. When I was young, I always wanted to grow old and enjoy the stuff elders used to do; but I wasn’t aware about the hidden circumstances. This is the reason why today I feel that I shouldn’t have grown up

But now I feel, why should I compare my ages with each other. I should try, instead I should definitely, enjoy my present age to the fullest and I can only do this by managing things around me properly; by aligning same colors together, just like Rubik’s cube.

The Base Color:

I can think of myself as the base color, which is the first one I usually complete when solving a Rubik’s Cube. Normally, this is the color which is aligned in proper position first and remains aligned till the end. I used to align myself first, because if I am not properly aligned or healthy enough; then how can I give support to others. The base color does not only mean my health but it also covers my beliefs, my religious duties, my manners and anything which can me strong enough to give proper support to other colors. Therefore, the base color is me

The Four Side Colors:

The four side colors are aligned in parallel to each other. To complete them, I twist the base color a little; but manages to align them together. I can easily comprehend the four colors as Parents & Siblings, Wife & Children, Friends and Profession. According to me in my current age, I have deduced that these four colors are these. All need special consideration and none can be ignored. I fully accept that I have been very lazy in aligning these colors in parallel. Most of the times, I fully concentrate on profession, and when I switch my attention to any of the other three my profession alignment is disturbed. Same is the case with others. So I am working very hard nowadays to fully align these four colors in parallel.

The Last Color:

It’s an outstanding thought, but others might disagree. But as soon as I align all the four colors, the last color automatically becomes aligned and I don’t need to do anything for it. So what is the last color, for which I have done nothing but still have achieved it. For me, this is happiness, self-satisfaction, bright future and most of all I have made my creator happy. As I can see it, aligning yourself first and then aligning your closer circle, makes your life a living heaven. But here’s the catch! Most of us spend decades in aligning the four colors and could never complete the last one, but still there is happiness in every step of life, every phase of life, that we have been able to align at least one color together and have believe that other colors might fall in their respective places.

So here it was, the thought which clicked in my mind today, and I thought it is better to share it with everyone or anyone who feels the same about life. It will be great to see if anyone agrees with me or not. If not, it will be awesome if anyone can come up with other representations of Rubik’s Cube colors.

Happy solving Life’s Rubik’s Cube!

What is Googleganger?

A googleganger is a creative description for a person who researches his name in Google’s search engine and finding one or more people who have the same name.

AZOSH hits Facebook

AZOSH Group is created in Facebook……. To join AZOSH group, click here

A memorable farewell

Last night, I was given farewell by my colleagues at Vahzay. It was fun listening to everyone’s comments and suggestions. We had a great dinner at Gourmet Restaurant in Township, which was creamed with hilarious discussions. I really liked everyone’s participation and it surely will be a memorable one.

Everyone was sharing their experiences with me, and I asked them to try to repeat those words in response of this blog post; so that I can remember every day I spent with them in Vahzay. I will surely miss everyone there. Thanks everyone for your support in all sorts of things we did, either it is official meetings, development, dinners, table tennis, movies, gaming, long walks to mosque, etc etc. I pray for success for everyone.

Special thanx to companies (Alchemy, Tintash and MindStorm Studios) in which I was outsourced for some time, and they became an important asset in my career too. It was great pleasure working with them.

Thanx Vahzay for giving me such great opportunities in such a short time span. I wish our roads will cross again. Take care

2010 resolution

One of my previous post “The Stories Behind Hollywood Studio Logos” around 13 months back has brought the most traffic to my blog. A simple (not so complex) observation on my blog visiting statistics, I have decided to post some useful stuff on my blog……. which might help anyone anywhere. So my new year resolution will be to modify my blog and make it useful for everyone. As an initial step, I’ll share here my top 10 posts, which have brought the most traffic to my blog. I will be removing some unnecessary posts from my blog. I hope this might not effect anyone

The list of top posts is as follow. The views count mentioned is calculated till 09-01-10, 12:15 PM (GMT+5) :

1. Home Page (7542)
2. The Stories behind Hollywood Studio logo (4283)
3. Remembering the GAMES which… (2789)
4. Background Subtraction – Stauffer & Grimson’s Algorithm (2273)
5. AMD releases first chip set with ATI graphics Card (1298)
6. Anatomy of an illusion – Pledge, Turn (880)
7. [iPhone] Learning OpenGL ES for iPhone Applications (695)
8. PUCIT First Degree Awarding Ceremony (643)
9. Game Development in iPhone using Cocos2d (425)
10. Apps Amuck – 31 Days Tutorial of iPhone (390)

A Dog’s life

At the time of creation, God was allocating life times to every living creature in terms of years.

First He called on the Man and gave him 20 years. Man as usually did not agree with God and explained that it is not fair for him because till 20 he will become young and then he will miss all the fun. God did not argue but promised to give the Man more years if other living creatures left any. So Man agreed to it.

After Man, God called to the Dog and gave it 30 years. At this, Dog got upset and explained that it is not fair for it because all it’s life it will run after untouchable things, get a scolding from everyone and will have to obey Man all it’s life, so there is no fun in this kind of life. So it begged God to minimize it’s life with 50%. God fulfilled it’s request and gave 15 years to Man as promised.

After Dog, God called to the Donkey and gave it 40 years. At this, Donkey got upset and explained that it is not fair for it because all it’s life it will carry burden on it’s back, get hits by Man and will have to obey Man all it’s life, so there is no fun in this kind of life. So it begged God to minimize it’s life with 50%. God fulfilled it’s request and gave 20 years to Man as promised.

After Donkey, God called to the Owl and gave it 50 years. At this, Owl got upset and explained that it is not fair for it because all it’s life it will not sleep at night and Man will never let it sleep in day time, so there is no fun in this kind of life. So it begged God to minimize it’s life with 50%. God fulfilled it’s request and gave 25 years to Man as promised.

After all this, Man’s average life time reached 80 and Man got happy. But this does not ends here!!!

Now Man lives his first 20 years like a man and enjoys every moment of his life. He is not afraid of anything and has free will to do anything. But as soon as he completes his 20 years. He enters a stage of life where he gets worried about education, jobs, girls, marriage etc. He runs after each of them even if they are unachievable. So he spends 15 years of his life like a Dog. When he reaches third phase of his life, and he has acquired some reasonable job, he has children and old parents, then he is pressed with great responsibilities. So he spends 20 years of his life like a Donkey. When he reaches his final phase of his life, he becomes old and tired and sick, and can not sleep at nights due to pains and grand children does not let him sleep at daytime. So he spends his last 25 years like an Owl.

The moral of this philosophical story is that we can totally understand why there are sudden changes in our lives and how are we effected. For me, I am currently spending A Dog’s Life…….

Happy Life Spending