On Complain

Men, inspired by desire to achieve great things in life, have accumulated fortunes sufficient for generations. This very desire can lead a man to a state where he complains about all the things around. Complaining about the things around is a very convenient escape route adopted by people facing struggle in life. The rigors in life tend to disappoint and then push into this abyss. The beauty of life is in the hardships and struggle for success not in the comfort zone of complaints. Complaints are most likely to be directed at friends, peers, parents or employers, who have some degree of interest in one’s life. Now the employers or peers might have a reason to have vested interest but all the others don’t have. Therefore it is imperative to realize what could be the problem. The rest are mostly sincere people. Sincerity is a double-edged sword. Sincere advice is often thought to be equivalent to correct advice but the advice may or may not be correct. Such complaints generally arise after thoughtlessly following sincere advice and thinking it would most likely lead to good results. Interestingly one cannot blame the person as well and hence the leading to the abyss of complaining about one’s own life. The scapegoats could be government, employers or even at times family members. It’s extremely difficult to cure since one cannot address the root cause of the problem which is following sincere advice without giving it a proper thought.

GNOME Cool Effects and why I am enjoying it

Although the machine warned me that in order to use the special effects I would need a fast graphics card. I was amazed at how beautiful the effects were specially the one where the window drags like a sheet in water. The way the windows pop up and drop down or shake when settling down after being left alone is not only wonderful but also pleasing to the eye. The user experience enhancements made in these cool effects is remarkable.

Ways to go GNOME

GCompris Education Game for kids 2-10 years old : Pilot Submarine Game

I had thought that I would be able to review the kids games in one go but I was in for a wonderful surprise. I started playing the first game which happened to be pilot-a-submarine activity. The main goal was to click on different active elements : engine, rudders and air tanks, in order to navigate to the required depth. There was a close gate on the right. Catch the jewel to open it, then pass through it to reach the next level. It took me alot of time to get familiar with the motion of the submarine but I was wondering the amazement a small kid would go through when playing this wonderful game. This game gives the kid basic ideas about physics and fluid mechanics without even mentioning a single scientific term. This sure is a great achievement. Happy cruising. Enjoy !

Experiences with LTSP eduBuntu

Frankly I was not looking to install LTSP but a series of events forced me to install LTSP. Well its not a long story but somehow I was convinced that if I have to replace my Ubuntu it has to be a Ubuntu. Since Ubuntu's support is the best right now. I tried Gentoo but aborted midway. I installed Mandriva but that too ended in my discomfort with the UI. In the end it was my hidden desire to check out the educational software that comes with edubuntu that motivated me to put that CD in. So that triggered a chain of events which led from one thing to another.

So I put the eduBuntu Install CD 6.06 into my machine and let it install. When I had got it installed I came to know it came with LTSP. So I checked out my laptop's PXE capability (PXE = Pre-boot Execution Environment) and then using a switch I tried to get my laptop to boot with the LTSP. The result was that it was unable to get an IP Address. This meant that I have to tweek the /etc/dhcp3/dhcp.conf and get it to give IPs from the range of addresses for my local network. This led to another problem tftf could not find file problem. In the end I was able to get my laptop boot from my LTSP Server but could not log into the X-server environment. Meanwhile I had to upgrade to the next LTS (Long time support) Linux called Hardy edubuntu and that one was extremely cool since for the first time I had an Operating System which was able to recognize my LCD screen and allow me to use it to its full potential.


Regarding the educational software that came with it. I would write another post where I would be looking at the capabilities and potential usage of the software.

In a nut shell it was not easy to setup the edubuntu (as claimed by many that its a half an hour exercise).

Background complexity into the fore

Mood transferred to canvas

Courage Tenacity Clarity towards goals

In the lonely and dark evenings of Abbottabad, one begins to feel the warmth of the heating system (be it gas heater or electric heater) is beginning to diminish after every passing moment. The following quotes remind one to move forward.

"When desire is mixed with faith backed by massive action, the probable becomes possible, every time. No exceptions. -Tina Su"

"Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart truly desires must come to you." -excerpt from Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain

Courage

Courage is the strength required to go after the glorious goals set forth in the youthful years. Even the education from the finest schools and universities of Pakistan or the world over fails to breed the spirit of the courageous. True they say strength and courage can never be taught. Is it something built in or does it require one to go through a modern curriculum of human psychology to build?

Tenacity

When tenacity is sprinkled on courage the fruits which delivered are second only to Adam's (Eve's) Apple in terms of desire. If courage is the fuel for change then tenacity is the vehicle. Tenacity is determination to achieve the goals. Courage kick starts the process which can only be culminated via steadfastness and belief in those goals.

Clarity

The second quote talks of boundless endowment capabilities of the universe. All is within reach and all one has to do is to put forth a request. The word request is qualified by a very interesting adjective "clear". Clarity of thought , courage , tenacity of these three clarity of thought is extremely difficult to attain.
Human mind is designed to forget if one loses this capability one might not be able to rise from the depths of sorrow or pain. Clarity of thought is possible by using this faculty of the human mind. Forgetting everything, banishing every thought out of the mind and then focus only on the task at hand leads one to dream up the goals and then once the ideas have been imagined clearly then all that is left is execution.

More on execution later.

Visit www.ptps.edu.pk for more blogs

Democracy is the best revenge

Asif Ali Zardari's tale continues, a man thought to have brought down the daughter of east twice, was elected the President of Pakistan by a huge majority of electorate. According to media people turned out in large numbers on the streets to celebrate. Yes Pakistanis are fortunate to have celebrated twice within 20 days. The first time it was Musharraf's departure and now Zardari's arrival. Democracy is sure a sweet revenge and at times sends you to the presidential palace.

The following statement should be kept mind while looking at the future of democracy in Pakistan.

But most Swazis see things entirely otherwise. As a local saying goes, "A king is a mouth that does not lie." The government is bad, people tend to conclude, but the king is good.
- http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/05/africa/swaziland.php?pass=true

Nobody likes vista (Really!!)

Nobody likes vista. This is what every XP user (or lover?) wants you to believe. Many theories are doing the rounds as to why this is happening. Is it because of the trademark rigidity of users to accept new products? Is it because Vista is not so cool? Or lastly God forbid is XP that good we dont want to stop using it?

Without trying to actually answer any of these questions. Lets assume none of the above is true or minimally none of the above is a correct (or complete) reason. Looking back at the experiment I have been doing over the last two years or so. I believe that now the world should start giving a real try to Ubuntu or any other linux distribution of choice. The most important reason for this is the development of OpenOffice. OpenOffice has come a long way now and after a few months of use, one really cant tell whether one is using XP / Vista or the dreaded linux. The mosts important features of OpenOffice are seamless conversion to pdf and ease in incorporating equations (Really). The rant about Linux here to answer the question is that now KDE has come such a long way that using Vista is (or should be) not a priority. Specially when after installing Linux one can have such a variety of window managers that one can choose.

In the end I guess the topic of this post is incorrect. It should be nobody wants Vista.