Incessant Gibbers

What Am I Doing?

anas — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:50:15 +0000

It seems like everyone is spending quite a lot of time online these days, especially my blogging friends. I just checked out some of the regular blogs that I visit and almost all of them are abuzz with activity: regular posts and a high number of comments associated with them. And what the hell am I doing? Oh, I’m busy trying to make a decision at 1 a.m. on a Tuesday night. I’m trying to figure out whether to implement a median filter or a digital biquad filter for my Digital Circuits coursework :S

Any immediate ideas?? Anyone? I am so clueless right now that I can just toss a coin and select the one which shows up. But ofcourse, I’d prefer to make a much more wise decision.

And these filters are not the only thing on my head right now. I have to design some sort of a basic graphic card too in another project. There will be one more project which I have to decide next week and all these need to be done by the second week of January. I have no idea how all this can be accomplished.

It seems like I’m totally out of the league these days. I’m hardly up-to-date with the happenings back home, not responding to e-mails and certainly not spending enough quality time online. Talking about time, I’m running short of it!

shittt!!!!

anas — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:31:45 +0000

The title says it all. I’ve made a huge mistake and I’m not sure right now if that can be reversed or not. I shift+deleted the entire 5gb folder of my Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan collection!!!!!!!!! How did this happen? Well, the great organizer that I am, I was organizing some files and folders and transferring them between my new hard drive and the older ones. I checked to make sure that this particular named folder was there on my new HDD, which it was, so I deleted the older one only to find the folder was empty at its new destination! Stupid me, I didn’t realize I created it for some other purpose. What a mess!

Now, I’m running some recovery utility hoping to reverse this mistake. But if I’m unable to do so, I can’t see any way of getting my entire collection back

Gym Showers!

anas — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:52:30 +0000

I may or may not have bragged about the wonderful fitness center (gym) at Imperial College known as Ethos. I, after some procrastination, decided to have a go at it. I had a 3-hour break between my classes on Tuesday so that was a nice time slot for me for a light workout. I was also told that the gym usage at morning and afternoon hours are light but tends to get crowded after 4 and may even require waiting periods. Anyway, it was almost 1200 when I went to the gym, passed the secure entrance, went up to the changing room and kept all my stuff in a locker. I slipped in my new adidas gym trainers and went down for some activity. I did a 3-km jogging session on treadmill followed by only 500m of rowing (first day after a break, couldn’t do more!). I also did some light crunches and decided to end the session. I went up to the changing room again and asked a guy where the showering facilities were. At this moment I did see some weird things, which I ignored (more later!). I walked in the pointed direction and found, to my utmost surprise, that there was a showering area was communal without any partitions or even curtains! It was a large area with wall-mounted showers and a little distance in between. barriers! Okay, in case farooqk reads this, the changing room for women are separate

Now things began to make sense. The weird stuff mentioned above was some guys walking back to their lockers completely naked. How on earth can people shower like that? It’s like the guys face the wall and turn their back as if saying “mate I’m not looking at you, so you shouldn’t either.” I asked a friend what the heck this was? He replied “dude! why are you shy? we all have the same things!” At this point I thought that not only toilets were a problem here but showers as well. Apparently, this is normal here and in most parts of the Western world.

I turned around [not in the shower, duhh!], and walked back to get some more information. I found there was only ONE shower which had curtains where you’ve to wait for your turn in case there are many shy guys at that time. I showered in that area and walked back with clothes to get my stuff. Then a guy in a short towel around his waist (hardly!) asked for a favour. Apparently his digital locker wasn’t opening, he was almost naked, and his clothes were locked in!!! So he asked me to go down and get some help, which I did.

These common showers also made me realize why bromance is so common in these places! Besharam Log!

Mustafa Kamal #2? Karachi #57

anas — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:15:46 +0000

It was well publicized that Mustafa Kamal has been ranked as the 2nd best mayor in the world. The news made the frontpage in almost every paper. This came as no surprise for the residents of Karachi who have actually witnessed the change. But there are people who’re just unable to digest this news.

A well respected Jamaat-e-Islami member said yesterday that this is a propaganda by MQM!! He added that Mustafa Kamal is actually ranked as #57. I checked on the Foreign Policy website and the link is:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4509&page=3

It says clearly who the top three mayors (edit: no rankings!) are. The numbers in the brackets are the ranking of the city.

Similarly, PTI (yeah, it stands for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) boasts on its website that this ranking is false and they called FP magazine to confirm that! Members of PTI (I hardly know of anyone other than Imran Khan) have a forum where they say that Mustafa Kamal is best “when it comes to build collapsable flyovers.” Now, collapsable flyovers is a fantastic idea though, but the author is referring to the Shershah flyover that collapsed. It must be noted that Shershah flyover wasn’t a project of CDGK and Mustafa Kamal had no involvement in it. It was a project of NHA (National Highway Authority), which is a federal organization.

To hell with PTI, congratulations to Mustafa Kamal (edit) for being mentioned.

Tagged by Karachi Wali

anas — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:00:25 +0000

The Rules are:

~ Link to the Blogger who tagged you.

~ In your blog, post The Rules and…

~ Six quirky but unspectacular factoids about yourself

~ Tag six other bloggers by linking to them

~ Go to each person’s blog, and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged.

~ Let me know you’ve done this tagged post too!

Okay, I’ve been tagged by karachiwali

1) I push/slide my glasses back a lot, even when they are not on.

2) I check my e-mails not less than 75 times a day (I’ve counted and computed that average!). I even check the physical mailbox here, even though I don’t expect to see something for me in there. Similarly, I check my weight 2-3 times a day!

3) I don’t like fancy cars, or plainly any other car talk. This is unusual because all my friends, and guys in general, have a great deal of interest in cars. I don’t. (It almost sounds like a confession! I do, however, love to drive)

4) Before any exam which involves the use of calculator, I ALWAYS check to make sure that the calculator is fine by doing 6 x 6 and obviously getting 36. This check of 6 x 6 has never changed for as far as I remember.

5) I can’t live without a plan (a realistic one) which is made by myself and written on a piece of paper. I feel directionless without that.

6) When I’m down, tensed or nervous, I eat plain milk chocolates (preferably Galaxy), and a LOT of it.

Now, I’m NOT tagging anyone!! Don’t ask me why!

Clutter of Mind

anas — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:11:31 +0000

I don’t know what to write. There’s a lot of clutter on my mind. My last post was 21 days ago!! I can’t remember that long hiatus before. I’ve been tagged, twice, but I’m yet to respond. I feel so damn lazy here! It has to do with the weather I think. The cold weather and quiet nights (which begin early!) are a perfect combo for a nice long sleep. And then I’ve got so much to study, which I’m constantly putting off. Just when I decided to write this post, I stopped somewhere before this sentence for two hours. I don’t know what I am doing, but I’ve decided to get things under control. Just after completing this post, which is basically pointless, I will pick up a pen and a pad to jot down the things to do in certain timeframe. This relates to my class today where I learnt resource constraint and latency constraint scheduling, whatever that is.

Now whatever I’m writing now is without any thought. So it may not make sense. I’m already feeling sleepy, its only 9.50pm here. Once upon a time I used to study in the middle of the nights, I’m trying to get that thing back.

I feel emptyminded. Nothing is coming up. Oh, and btw, my ‘windows’ is so messed up and yet I can’t format this thing because I forgot my product recovery dvd in pakistan, locked in the safety of my room!

I will try to keep the blog updated now. In fact, I don’t think I will be opening my books now, so I will now try to jot down some more posts, more focused posts, just after I’m finished with my ‘latency constrained scheduling.’

Note: The pic associated with this post is NOT my room. My room is very clean, surprisingly. This just reflects the clutter of my mind.

Settling In…

anas — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:23:23 +0000

My first ever class at Imperial was of an optional subject called Synthesis of Digital Architectures. It was sleep-inducing at first, but the professor managed to steer it on an unknown awesome track in the midst of two-hour slot. This is a subject which I’m unclear about, at least from the first class. Another class scheduled after a 4 hour gap was of Instrumentation. From these two, and other three of my subjects, and their teachers I’ve noticed that we’re studying the future of technology, not its history. The course contents include matter from the latest research in respective fields. The teachers, all of whom are highly respected in their fields and obviously experienced, combine humour to make it memorable for the students. Talking of students, there’s a nice blend of people from different countries (did I mention this in any earlier post?). Coming to the point of teachers, their profiles indicate their involvements in many of technologies we’re using today!!! So, the people teaching here are those who have invented or played a part in different inventions and innovations of our age. There’s a huge difference of teaching standard compared to what I’ve been used to. Naturally, there is a great amount of expectations from the students as well, due to which I’m drowned in shitload of work. I’ve been forced to reinforce some of my basic concepts which were covered perfunctorily or not covered at all!!

This week also included a career talk on the subject ‘What will you do at the end of your MSc?’ The focus was mainly on how to secure jobs, when to apply, and introduce other services from the Career Advisory Office of Imperial. Honestly, I was dreaming after 10 minutes of its start.

Out of the 5 (4 mandatory and 1 optional) subjects in this term, my favourite so far has been VHDL and Logic Synthesis.

This week is probably the settling stage of my life in London. I got my bank account details, the debit card will take another week (arghh!), got my student travel card (Oyster 18+) and I’m loving the new residence, despite the sound of Circular Line train which runs just at the back of this building and I’m able to recognize the monetary worth of numerous annoying coins.

The new neighbourhood is fantastic. The previous one was dominated by desis, but there is large concentration of Arabs here which means easy availibility of eatables like Shawarma, Falafel and Hummus

The weather is unpredictable, but that is exactly what makes it good, although the majority hates that.

The only thing yet to settle is a study routine, which I hope to devise tonight and implement for the next few days/weeks. Wish me luck!

Say NO to buses

anas — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:16:41 +0000

The end of last week, precisely Sunday the 12th of October, we shifted from East to West London, from Walthamstow to Hammersmith (I think :S). The whole process was tiring, as is the case of any shifting event. But we did make it by about 9 p.m in the night. The next day was supposed to be important for me, as it marked my first official class at Imperial. I was made aware that a certain bus (number 70) goes from our place to Imperial directly, door-to-door. The tube stations (there are two nearby) are both at a walking distance of about 10 minutes, and then the additional walk of few minutes at South Kensington station to Imperial. So, I decided to take the bus which was supposed to reach the destination in about 45 minutes. I completely forgot the fact that the class was scheduled for 10 a.m and hence I was riding in rush hour. And every so often Murphy’s Law of things going wrong prove so true, when my bus got stuck in the London traffic jams at numberous places. I managed to get in the class, precisely 5 mintues late. No, there are no attendance rules but I wanted to be there on time. A lesson well learnt of not using buses in the mornings!

The First Week

anas — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:29:56 +0000

The first week at Imperial College has been largely festive. Various welcome sessions were arranged to acclimatise the students with the structure, functioning, services, facilities and administration of Imperial. Something amusingly strange about Imperial College is its name! In fact, it’s a university but they still call it college. The word ‘college’ is embedded in its name. However saying Imperial is more than enough for the purpose of recognition.

Coming back to the events in the first week, the first welcome session I attended was for the International students where the rector (SIR Roy Anderson) spoke to the students together with other representatives of different departments of Imperial including the International Office. The next welcome session was for all the postgraduate freshers in engineering and physical sciences courses, where more or less, same group of people spoke with special emphasis on the changes to expect as a postgraduate student and the expectations of Imperial from us. The Imperial College Union (ICU) President also spoke on both of these occasions and highlighted how the union (run by students for students) helps the students all along. Another welcome session that I attended was by the department for all the MSc students and the final event was speicifically for my course. So in a way they addressed the whole group first, then the department took over and then the specific course. Attendance of a mandatory safety induction programme (boring, to say the least) then allowed us to pick up our cards which is to be used at the ubiquitious card readers at the campus. The card is used in printers, scanners, copiers, library doors, gym doors, praryer room doors, department doors, and what not!

The limelight of the first week throughout Imperial was the events organized by the ICU. At this stage it is important to mention that ICU gets the largest funding in the UK for any student body. It has over 300 clubs and societies! You can find everything you can imagine (YES!) and even those that you can’t. The Union runs shops, cafes and pubs as well. The main event was the freshers’ fair. They also arranged various parties every night during the first week none of which did I attend.

Realizing that there was nothing much to do in the first week I took the opportunity to register myself with the local GP at the Imperial College Health Center. I also applied for the opening of a bank account which I heard is a pain in the ass in UK. Natwest Bank didn’t bother me much, but they did say it takes a week for the opening of account. I guess I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the sort of facilities available at the campus. The central library which remains open 24 hours is awesome. It has multiple floors (levels), a big cafe, group study areas, silent study areas, etc etc. and its beautiful too. It houses books for the NHS and some museums too. Then there is a departmental library in our EEE department building which houses very specific titled. A special MSc room which is quite large is the place where most of the MSc students from all three MSc programmes meet up quite often. Its a study room as well as a leisure room. It has lockers for us and computers with ultra high speed internet. Wireless access is everywhere. The room has armchairs and tables as well and a microwave oven as well. One day it smelt badly of fish! (arghhh). This particular room is usually locked with a digital code.

Other facilities within the department building include a cafeteria below. Eating isn’t a problem. There is a main dining hall and other very large common rooms too. These places do serve Halal food as well.

I’ll be covering the stuff in greater detail as time permits, and try to add pictures as well. There’s a lot more I wish I could key in now but I’m just unable to formulate proper sentences these days out of sheer tiredness.

Note: Although I wrote this post a while ago, I wasn’t able to post it up due to some odd reason. I’m almost at the end of week two which has been very interesting, so I’ll write about it over the weekend, hopefully.

October 8: Today In History

anas — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:06:44 +0000

October 8, 2005 Earthquake in Kashmir kills approximately 80,000 people

October 8, 2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected the governor of California

October 8, 1998 House of Representatives approves impeachment inquiry of President Clinton

October 8, 1986 Anas Imtiaz is born!!!!!

October 8, 1980 U.S.S.R. and Syria sign peace treaty

October 8, 1980 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test

October 8, 1971 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

October 8, 1965 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk U.S.S.R.

October 8, 1961 U.S. Constellation crashes at Richmond, Virginia, 74 die

October 8, 1961 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya U.S.S.R.

October 8, 1959 Conservatives win British election

October 8, 1958 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
October 8, 1952 Chinese offensive in Korea

October 8, 1940 German troops occupies Romania

October 8, 1939 Germany annexes Western Poland

October 8, 1924 British Labour government of MacDonald falls to Communists

October 8, 1918 7 U.S. soldiers are surrounded by Germans in France, Alvin York is given command and shoots 20 Germans and captures 132 more

October 8, 1912 Montenegro declares war on Turkey, beginning 1st Balkan War

October 8, 1896 Dow Jones starts reporting an average of selected industrial stocks

October 8, 1886 Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure “Noble Bachelor”

October 8, 1873 1st women’s prison run by women opens at Indiana Reformatory Institute

October 8, 1871 Great Fire kills 200, destroys over 4miles (10 km) of Chicago buildings, and original Emancipation Proclamation

October 8, 1806 British forces lay siege to French port of Boulogne using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve

October 8, 1492 Columbus’ fleet about 400 sea miles from Puerto Rico

October 8, 314 Battle at Cibalae: emperor Constantine beats emperor Licinius