Inspirational Quote

I was at a talk today given by Mr. Kevin Wright of IBM regarding Service Science Management and Engineering. He had this great quote at the end that I'd like to share with you all. It's got to do with the immense competition we have in the professional world today, and whether you're a businessman or an IT professional, there's no "easy" way to get around and be successful anymore!

Here's the quote:

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve.

It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

How the Large Hadron Collider Works

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and most complex scientific instrument ever built and the highest energy particle accelerator in the world. The accelerator is located 100 meters underground and runs 27 kilometers through both French and Swiss territory. It really is an amazing creation! Watch this great video to know how it works:

Parachinar Burns!

I had been wanting to do a post about the dire situation prevalent in Parachinar for some time now. Ali Hasnain posted a good blog entry about it the other day, and this is more or less along the same lines of what he said.

First of all, I am shocked and aghast at the lack of coverage given to such a grave situation inside our country. Just doing a query on Google News using the keyword 'parachinar' reveals the amount of killing that has been going on over there - and this is just what is being reported. Sad stories of people's livelihoods being destroyed - like the one on Ali's blog - are surely more common than this news stories would have us believe. People are dying by the scores in an all-out war reminiscent of the stone ages, the only difference is that both sides claim to be "Muslims". Sectarian violence is rife in the Kurram Agency and Parachinar area as the tribes are at each other's throats. Where are the self-proclaimed "Independent" news networks now?! Do they not not consider this news-worthy because it's in a desolate region of the country?! I urge local and international news organizations to do justice to the people of that troubled region and let the world know of the air of inhumanity and sectarian strife that is prevalent over there at the moment. People are being butchered over there every day and nobody seems to give a damn anymore!

A handful of stories have been on the local and international front but certainly not enough. Yesterday, we saw a positive development in the region in the form of a peace jirga. Here's hoping things materialize on that front before the Taliban get a chance to screw things up again. Parachinar and Pakistan's other frontier regions have been the victim of a Taliban insuregency ever since the Americans invaded Afghanistan. The ensuing conflict has literally obliterated the tourism industry of that region, and such beautiful places and others (Swat etc.) have sadly been marred by conflict for months now.

While our leaders are busy flirting with the likes of Palin, things back home are spiraling out of control, the Marriott bombing being the perfect proof of that. If they can hit us in one of the most "secure" areas, then there's no telling what kind of death and destruction they can bring provided they get their hands of bigger, stronger and more advanced explosives, which they seemingly are now getting. The future, in the meantime, does not look bright.

McCain for Change?

Definitely one of the best daily shows I've seen for a while!

Zardari elected President

I think I'm gonna be sick! :S

You know they've been going on about what little executive experience Obama and Replublican V.P. nominee Sarah Palin have. Come to think of it, how much of it does Zardari have?

Funny how all the cases against him are being disproved all of a sudden, and how the government has conveniently withdrawn it's case against him from the Swiss courts. He must think he's in heaven or something!

Check out the story in International Herald Tribune about him.

Hug A Developer

Source: http://develop-one.net/blog/2008/08/27/HugADeveloper.aspx

It started with "Developers everywhere are in terrible pain", and I just knew where it was going. Its true for *most* software projects, which are mishandled and either end up being a total failure or, if they're lucky, realizing less than half of what the software was originally capable of. A sad story, repeated all over the world for myriad reasons.

Note there's no mention of testers or software testing. That probably because there's nothing to it! :) I mean how hard can it be?! :P Devs and test, as you can imagine, don't always get along. But perhaps I'll save my anti-QA rants for another post some other time :)