Thank you Google
Friday, 31 December 2010
Thank you Google for wishing us Millions of Happier New Years. And more thanks for donating $20 million to charitable organizations around the world. (Also Google.org granted $1 million to Pakistani flood 2010 relief in September, localized crisis response tools, and launched a flood relief landing page.) I am glad to be a part of what Google is today.
To mark the occasion, Quick Online Tips – one of my favorite blogs and a regular read - has invited all bloggers to thank Google this season for all the amazing tools and services which make blogging fun and profitable.
Given my personal experience with some of Google services (Google Adsense, Google Site Search, Google Apps, Google Related Links, Google Webmaster Tools and best of all Google Blogger – my favorite blogging platform which I am using since it was first offered to public and so far never had a reason to shift), I own my special thanks to Google. What is more, despite being a free service, their support team is always there to help.
Thank you Google for changing my orientations and turning me into a writer whose work now appear in print. It would not have been possible if I had not started using blogger.com.
Thank you Google for changing my orientations and turning me into a writer whose work now appear in print. It would not have been possible if I had not started using blogger.com.
Labels: Fine Art of Blogging, Google
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, December 31, 2010,
, links to this post
Babur, the first Moghul king
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Foreign invaders have always had a difficult relationship with Afghanistan. The diary of Babur, the first Moghul emperor, offers some lessons in how to manage—and to enjoy—the place
The tomb of Babur, the first Moghul emperor, blasted and pock marked during the civil war of the 1990s, has been lovingly restored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Some visitors come because it is now Kabul’s most tranquil public space; some because Babur is emerging as an unlikely national hero in a country short of leaders worth admiring. People pray at the foot of his low, simple grave. One enthusiast sacrifices a buffalo to him every year, and distributes the meat to the gardeners who tend the place.
Born far to the north of modern Afghanistan, Babur went to Kabul only because he had failed in Central Asia. It was Samarkand he dreamed of capturing. Yet when the demands of building an empire drove him south, he yearned to return to Kabul.
For a man who achieved so much, he is strangely unknown outside Afghanistan. Not only did he create a dynasty whose empire stretched from Afghanistan to southern India and which gave the world some of its greatest cultural riches, but he also wrote an autobiography which, though half a millennium old, is a far better read than most of the political and business memoirs churned out today. The Baburnama recounts the barbarity and hardship of a princeling’s life in a chaotic world; but it is also full of delight and humanity. Sometimes self-aggrandising, sometimes self-critical, Babur emerges from his autobiography as a real person, in a way no other great leader except Churchill does. And because the author is so open, and the style so clear, the book offers an intimate view of a world the reader would otherwise struggle to imagine. “Rarely can such a sophisticated mind”, says Bamber Gascoigne in “The Great Moghuls”, “have recorded so wild an existence which combined to an extraordinary degree the romantic and the sordid.” It was first translated into English in 1922 by Annette Beveridge, mother of William Beveridge, architect of Britain’s welfare state; “The Garden of the Eight Paradises”, a recent biography of Babur by Stephen Dale, has done it more than justice; yet it still lacks the fame it deserves.
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, December 29, 2010,
, links to this post
Borderline Green
Monday, 27 December 2010
As per good blogging practice, I have always been exploring blogsphere. By doing this not only I come across some good and useful blogs but also meet people who are who are working on purpose and with goals. People with direction.
Lately, I discovered very aptly named blog Borderline Green. I was amazed to see the listed goals; to explore the history of our region and our people with an independent mindset, to reflect on our social issues, their causes, effects and possible solutions, to engage in an active dialog on politics – both national and international, to provide a diversity of opinions on matters of social interest, to share ideas for improvement, to celebrate our rich culture and unique people and quite a lot in between.
I so far know only one chartered accountant Mubeshir Kazmi who blogs. I am pleasantly surprised to see people (Anie Onaiza, Binte, Munershra, Murtaza and Nauman are based in Saudi, UK and Pakistan) behind this blog are mostly chartered accountants. And I can say by experience that economists and account people have incisive observation and grasp the issue relating political economy better than all of us. That is what they are doing. Explore Borderline Green and see for yourself. Better still, like minded observers are invited to contribute and play their part in bringing a required change.
Well done Anie Onaiza, Binte, Munershra, Murtaza and Nauman and keep it up. Your work matters.
Labels: Fine Art of Blogging
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Monday, December 27, 2010,
, links to this post
Salute celebration - the 134th birth anniversary of Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Cadets from Pakistan Military Academy perform a ceremonial drill at the mausoleum of country founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in Karachi on December 25, 2010.
Labels: Men At Their Best
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Sunday, December 26, 2010,
, links to this post
Hobby Lobby
Saturday, 25 December 2010
When I was a small child, keeping hobbies was very much in. Wherever one went, the elders would invariably ask, “What is your hobby?” And every kid in those had a hobby. Mostly kids collected stamps, coins, match box covers, read books, collected post cards and many other things. I for myself collected stamps and would spend my pocket money in buying stamps to add to my collection.
One of my brothers loved making small aero planes from balsa wood and paper, installed a small engine and flew it with remote control. Mind you I am talking of the age when such hobby was very rare and no one knew much of these small aero planes that he used to fly from Lahore Flying Club’s runway. The place from where he bought the kits was known as Hobby Lobby. And all along these years, the name of the shop always fascinated me.
And this makes me name my blog Hobby Lobby – a lobby for the hobby lovers. While I have a separate and exclusive blog on philately (My Philatelic World), I wanted to have a forum for likes of others as well. So this blog of mine is a platform for all hobbyists and their hobbies. I shall share all news and details of every hobby that interests people around the globe and would welcome everyone to share their views on their hobbies here.
Labels: Fine Art of Blogging
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, December 25, 2010,
, links to this post
Most Reliable Blogging Service
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Royal Pingdom have found Blogger to be the most reliable blogging service on the web. Without question. Of all the blogging platforms monitored, only Blogger delivered 100% uptime. Here's the full article for your perusal. “Since Blogger was the only service with zero downtime overall, we skipped the chart here. We hope you don’t mind. It simply wouldn’t have been very interesting,” Royal Pingdom site reads.
Well done Blogger Team!
(Via Blogger Buzz)
Labels: Fine Art of Blogging
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Tuesday, December 21, 2010,
, links to this post
Youm-e-Ashura
Friday, 17 December 2010
Related: Youm-e-Ashura, Muharram, 10 Moharram - Youm-e-Ashur
Labels: Youm-e-Ashura
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, December 17, 2010,
, links to this post
Pakistan - 10th highest newspaper ciruclation in the world
According to the latest edition of the trivia book Top 10 of Everything 2011 by Russell Ash, Pakistan has the 10th highest newspaper circulation in the world!
We may not think of ourselves as newspaper reading people, but seems like newspapers do sell!
There are several interesting records in the book, but the one that caught my attention was the top 10 list of countries with the highest circulation of newspapers. I’ve always heard that newspaper circulation has been pathetic in Pakistan but the numbers quoted in this book and taken from surveys of UNESCO put Pakistan at number 10 in the world in terms of the highest circulation of newspapers.
Following is the list of Top 10 countries with highest newspaper circulation. The numbers written infront of country names give the average daily circulation of newspapers in these countries according to the cited UNESCO numbers.
Read more »
Labels: Books, Foreign Media, News and Media, Print Media
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, December 17, 2010,
, links to this post
Three way split
Monday, 13 December 2010
The Economist magazine has divided world economy into three zones. Even though talk about emerging economies is often about China, India and few other countries, Pakistan too is part of the emerging-economies zone. This article is very much relevant to Pakistan and its economic future. Some have suggested that Pakistan should take a 'piggy ride' on the back of economic success of its neighbor India. I argue Pakistan need not to do that. It can and it must chalk its own independent economic course. Pakistan is worlds 25th. largest economy and a huge economic market. If Pakistan plays its cards well and fully integrates itself with Europe, North America and South America, whose economies are very different than those of Asian emerging economies, there is no reason why it can not be part of the G-20.
America, the euro zone and the emerging world are heading in different directions, says Pervaiz Munir Alvi. Read the article here.Labels: Economy
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Monday, December 13, 2010,
, links to this post
Best of Pakistan Blogsphere - Top Ten Blogs – 2010
Thursday, 9 December 2010
My friend S A J Shirazi asked me to list top 10 blogs 2010 as I perceived these to be the best. Well being a new in the field of blogging, I had been looking around to see how people feel and express themselves on social issues and everything that happens around them. It wasn’t an easy request as every blog has its unique theme, substance and impact.
But I had to do it as Shirazi never ceases to follow someone till he realizes his aims and objectives. So I quickly made a few criteria that included:-
- Regular updating
- Quality of substance and its relevance to our present milieu
- Number of visitors leaving comments
- And finally of course its Google page rank
I thought I had set a comfortable target and would list 10 blogs within no time. But when I went about checking the blogs I frequent mostly and some not very frequently, I found that it wasn’t an easy task. Some of the blogs that I thought would find a way into my list looked back at me with hollowness. Some blogs that I thought would have a high page rank turned to be with no page rank at all.
Despite my best efforts, none of my favourite blogs came out with a page ranking of more than 6. By and by, I collected a combination ranging 4-6, and I was glad to find some of my favourites fitting in comfortably into the list. The only exception that I made was for Jaho Jalal, my own blog that has a ranking of 3. I am including it for the reason that it attained this ranking just within its first three months of hosting.
So here are the Top 10 Blogs 2010 from my view point (you are invited to add your point of view and your favorite Pakistani blogs in comment section:-
- All Things Pakistan(6): http://pakistaniat.com
- Chapati Mystery (6): http://www.chapatimystery.com
- Pak Tea House (5): http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com
- Chup! Changing Up Pakistan (5): http://changinguppakistan.wordpress.com
- Five Rupees (5): http://fiverupees.blogspot.com
- Doodh Patti (4): http://doodhpatti.blogspot.com
- Teeth Maestro (4): http://teeth.com.pk
- Logic is Variable (4): http://logicisvariable.blogspot.com
- Café Pyala (4): http://cafepyala.blogspot.com
- Jaho Jalal (3): http://jahojalal.blogspot.com
About the writer: Jalal Hameed Bhatti may be new in blogsphere but he has been online since the time when there used to be no blogs. His online presence was first felt when he started PakistanPedia (then Jalal Pages) in early days of dot com. Lately, Jalal has joined blogsphere and in addition to Jaho Jalal, he is writing Management Matters, Fire Within and My Philatelic World.
Labels: Pakistan Blogsphere, Top Ten Blogs
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, December 09, 2010,
, links to this post
With love from Italy
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Labels: Personal
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Wednesday, December 08, 2010,
, links to this post
Lahore School Convocation – 2010
Saturday, 4 December 2010
The Lahore School of Economics’ Eighth Annual Convocation was held at the main campus on December 4, 2010. Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, the Rector Lahore School of Economics conferred degrees and awards to 850 graduating students of MPhil, MS Economics, MSc Economics, Masters in Business Administration, BSc Economics, Bachelors of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration (Executive) and Masters of Business Administration (Professional).
The Lahore School of Economics, chartered in 1997, has grown to become a mature institution of higher learning. This is reflected in its present strength of 181 faculty and 3154 students – 2741 Undergraduate, 339 Postgraduate and 74 MPhil / PhDs candidates - in Economics, Business Administration, Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Environmental Sciences and Media Studies, Art and Design.
In his convocation address, Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry summarized the Lahore School’s academic activities and programs. The School admits students every year into the Undergraduate program after an extremely selective admission process. After a common first year involving intensive training in mathematics, statistics, basic economics, English language skills and computing these students then specialize in economics, social sciences and business including finance and marketing – often with double majors in these disciplines or with strong minors in mathematics and statistics, environmental sciences and media studies, art and design. As a result students emerge with extremely high level academic skills which provide a basis for both further academic studies and or immediate employment. The Lahore School also offers a range of Graduate Programs in Economics, Business Administration and Environment Studies which range from M.Sc. in Economics and MBA to MS and PhD in Economics, Business Administration and Environmental Sciences.
There are currently 40 students doing M.Sc./MPhil leading to PhD in Economics, 43 students doing MS/MPhil leading to PhD in Business Administration and 9 students doing MPhil leading to PhD in Environment Studies. In addition the School has 321 students enrolled in its MBA Programs.
There are currently 40 students doing M.Sc./MPhil leading to PhD in Economics, 43 students doing MS/MPhil leading to PhD in Business Administration and 9 students doing MPhil leading to PhD in Environment Studies. In addition the School has 321 students enrolled in its MBA Programs.
The Rector said that the Lahore School encourages both its faculty and student body to undertake research which is supported by a specialized Centre for Research in Economics and Business. The Lahore School has excellent research support facilities including specialized libraries and electronic data bases, the JSTOR archives and EBSCO Business and Econ Lit which provide up to date full text access to the world’s leading journals in these disciplines. All undergraduate students are required to write an original paper before they graduate and faculty members are expected to write two first authored research papers and one second authored research paper each year.
The Lahore School also places great stress on extra-curricular activities, particularly in Sports, Debates, Dramatics, Music and Art. Our Sports and Debating Teams are amongst the best in Pakistani Universities in large part due to the fact that these activities are a regular part of the daily activities of the campus.
All of these efforts have led to extremely successful job placements for our graduating students. At the same time, our graduates are entering some of the finest academic programs in the world for further studies. "I am also proud to see that our previous graduates are reaching the highest levels of the financial and corporate sectors and I am sure that this graduating class will exceed the accomplishments of previous graduating classes," said the Rector.
Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry also noted the Lahore School’s Board of Governors, Faculty and Student body has been touched as has every Pakistani by the enormity of the damage done by floods this summer and has accordingly made a serious effort to assist the flood affectees. In addition to provision of active flood relief during the floods by the faculty and students, the faculty and staff have contributed one day’s salary to the Government’s Relief Fund and the students have collected a considerable sum of money which is intended for flood relief. The students supported by the faculty have decided to utilize their collected funds (which is an ongoing process) together with a matching grant from the Lahore School to reconstruct about 20 single room dwellings in the poorest area of the Town of Jampur, District D.G. Khan. We hope to construct more such dwellings in the future. The Centre of Environmental Sciences deserves recognition for coordinating the efforts in this regard.
Reviewing the the Pakistani economy Dr shahid Amjad Chaudhry said that Pakistan is passing through a difficult period both because of a regional war and also because of a difficult economic stabilization process. I would first and foremost like to say that I am certain that this period of economic uncertainty is transitory and Pakistan’s economy has a bright future. The reason for my confidence in the country’s economy is because of its incredibly rich natural resource and human capital base. Just look at the remarkable young people before us today, and you will also be convinced of the incredible potential of our economy.
While many of the important macroeconomic issues have been significantly resolved as a result of the current stabilization program, including a more realistic exchange rate, a lower fiscal deficit and an appropriately tight monetary policy, there are still some remaining issues facing our economy relating to the convertibility of our capital account and the low public resource base. As all of you know, we are one of the few developing countries in the world with a fully convertible capital account, which is not the case in China or India. Though this convertibility has certain benefits, it must be acknowledged that it also brings about significant uncertainty in terms of our exchange rate. I think that it is crucial for us to understand and discuss the pros and cons of this issue more carefully.
The final issue that I would like to discuss is the obvious resource constraints faced by the Government of Pakistan. Recently, the issue of resource mobilization has come into the spotlight because of the discussion of the Revised General Sales Tax (or the RGST). Without going into too many details, I do want to emphasize that the federal governments share of RGST revenues is only 40%, while the provinces is 60%. So, all the provinces will ultimately realize that they gain significantly in terms of revenues as a result of the RGST. Therefore once the provinces and the federal government agree on the RGST, and particularly its timing, then the Pakistan’s fiscal resource issues will be significantly resolved.
Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry congratulated all the graduating students and the parents for their remarkable achievements. “The strength of any academic institution lies in their students, and the strength of these students lies in their parents. Both the graduating students and their parents should be proud of themselves just as the Lahore School of Economics is proud of you,” the Rector said.
The Convocation was attended by a large number of parents.
Read more »Labels: Lahore School of Economics
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, December 04, 2010,
, links to this post
WikiLeaks New Web Address
http://213.251.145.96/
With international pressure mounting on WikiLeaks, Amazon's decision to kick the site off its server triggered debate among other Web-hosting companies over how to handle the political hot potato. Brian Ries talks to the deciders.
Read more »
Labels: Web Hosting, Wikileaks
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Saturday, December 04, 2010,
, links to this post
WikiLeaks cable casualties
Friday, 3 December 2010
In the wake of the WikiLeaks cable disaster, Team Obama plans to reassign key U.S. embassy personnel—pulling those who were compromised and could be in danger. By Philip Shenon.
The Obama administration is planning a major reshuffling of diplomats, military officers, and intelligence operatives at U.S. embassies around the world out of concern that WikiLeaks has made it impossible—if not dangerous—for many of the Americans to remain in their current posts.
Read More at After the Leaks, the Shakeup
Labels: Wikileaks
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, December 03, 2010,
, links to this post
Lahore School British Parliamentary Quadrangular Debate
Ali Akbar Abbas Rizvi
Lahore School of Economics Association of Debaters (LSEAD) British Parliamentary Quadrangular Debate was held at the Lahore School on the November 30, 2010 in Mahmood Chaudhry Library at the Main Campus. The teams present were the opening government LUMS (Ali Javed and Osama Zaman), opening opposition Kinnaird College (Osheen Fatima and Amel Ghani), closing government UCL (Abbas Ali and Neeshay Aqueel) and closing opposition the Lahore School itself (Syed Ali Akbar Abbas Rizvi and Shahraiz Chishti).
The topic under discussion was, “this house believes that globalization is a tool for exploitation.” After a heated debate the decision eventually boiled down between LUMS and LSE with LUMS managing to get victory by a split decision. Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, the Rector Lahore School of Economics, Dr. Azam Chaudhry, the Dean of Economics, Javed Quershi, the Director Extra Curricular and large number of the students from Lahore School and students from Learning Alliance School attended the debate.
The topic under discussion was, “this house believes that globalization is a tool for exploitation.” After a heated debate the decision eventually boiled down between LUMS and LSE with LUMS managing to get victory by a split decision. Dr. Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, the Rector Lahore School of Economics, Dr. Azam Chaudhry, the Dean of Economics, Javed Quershi, the Director Extra Curricular and large number of the students from Lahore School and students from Learning Alliance School attended the debate.
Labels: Lahore School of Economics
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Friday, December 03, 2010,
, links to this post
Attention Age
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Use of social media applications is being debated across the World Wide Web. Fans support the usage of tools like Blog, tweet, Facebook to break down barriers between businesses, public servants and ordinary people to discuss ideas and gather feedback. Trend watches and analysts still see the social media tools as time wasting diversions. It is in this milieu that we need to look at the fast growing social media usage in our own, still low tech, corporate and public sectors.
Read Social Media in the Attention Age
Labels: Social Media
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, December 02, 2010,
, links to this post
WikiLeaks goes offline under US pressure
"Here's the deal. Keep the vast majority of citizens ignorant, illiterate and scared. Then, they are ripe for enslavement," Carol Yates Wilkerson.
After the "job" has been done, the US struck its first blow against WikiLeaks after Amazon.com pulled the plug on hosting the whistleblowing website in reaction to heavy political pressure.
The company announced it was cutting WikiLeaks off yesterday only 24 hours after being contacted by the staff of Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's committee on homeland security.
WikiLeaks expressed disappointment with Amazon, and insisted it was a breach of freedom of speech as enshrined in the US constitution's first amendment. The organisation, in a message sent via Twitter, said if Amazon was "so uncomfortable with the first amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books."
Related: WikiLeaks are intentional leaks
Labels: Wikileaks
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, December 02, 2010,
, links to this post
Find Real-Time Inventory for Products at Local Stores Online
Fixing up the home before the holidays get here can be both expensive and time consuming. That’s why many of us try to look online to see where the best deals are. Say you need something like a new power tool in order to handle your new remodeling project. Well you would look online to see who has the best deal available and then go to the store and pick it up. Well the problem is that right now stores are selling out items if they have a great deal on it so you could drive all the way out there to find out that the power tool is sold out.
This problem could have been avoided if you used different websites to research the info. There are now websites out there that can actually allow you to not only find out which store has the best deal, but which store still has those items. So not only can you find out which store sells the power tool the cheapest, you can also find out which of the local Home Depot locations, Lowes locations, or Sears locations actually have it in stock without having to waste an entire day driving around. This can save you a lot of money as well as a lot of time and time is something we cannot afford to waste during the holiday season, especially if we are remodeling our home. So find the ways to make it easiest on yourself, the technology is out there, you just have to keep your eyes open.
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Thursday, December 02, 2010,
, links to this post
