Crow's Nest...

This holiday season I decided to gift myself some basic electrical components in the form of a Arduino UNO set from Elegoo. I have always had a desire to tinker with electronics and in gifting myself this basic set I am now starting on a journey to quench my inner electrical workman's thirst. I hope to develop this hobby as I move forward and will, from time to time, post about it here on the blog. As the journey moves forward I am sure to run into trouble and issues. But as they say you can not master anything without first being a fool at it, so I have decided to remain a fool at it until I am a little good at it. To start with, I do possess some elementary knowledge in electronics and electronic circuits. I intend to further my knowledge using the world wide web and following some very useful video channels on youtube. I will first start with some very basic projects to familiarize myself with Arduino and basic electronic circuits and techniques such as soldering. Then graduall...

There has been a recurring thought in my mind over the past many many months.  Every time I sit on the table to eat food with my  family  I thank God for giving me this opportunity to sit down and enjoy one of the basic needs of living beings.  Apart from the ability to sit down and eat with family I also do enjoy the absolute variety of tastes that are reaching my taste buds.  It is indeed a fact that our table is almost always stuffed with different  flavours by virtue of quite intricately cooked foods with lots of love.

I have been using the new xbox for many days now. The most important part of the console is obviously it's controller as this is the part we interact with most. In comparison to the xbox 360 controller the build quality of this controller seems slightly compromised. There is little counter weight in the wings of this controller and therefore it does not feel quite as sturdy in hand as the old one. However the shape has been elongated a bit and this actually probably compensates for the weight issue. All the buttons are within reach of my fingers which is good. One thing I have liked about the xbox controller is the snug fit in my hands. This is unlike sony's six axis controller. Those are obviously made for smaller hands. The sony controllers are much sturdier as I have learnt over the years I have had the play station. They took a lot of beating but came out winning. I don't think I expect same quality from the xbox controllers.  Also I have been getting a taste of Microso...

I have recently purchased the newest version of Microsoft's gaming consoles, the Xbox One . This is a shift from my prior gaming system which was Sony's PS3 . I loved PS3 and preferred it over Xbox 360 for many reasons. It was smarter looking, faster, could play Blu rays, good games and all my friends had PS3s. However the most like able thing about it was the free online game play that Microsoft does not allow. Things I did not appreciate in Sony were its user interface. The move bundle was a waste of money for all intent and purposes as I used it once in the past two years. So this time around I decided to go with Microsoft's game console. The decision was not easy. Obviously PS4 has some good press out there and it is a step forward in technology. However now Xbox can play blu rays too. Also now both consoles require a subscription service for online game play. This sort of made me feel like Sony didn't care for us anymore. I guess paying money might mean better e...

The issue of avoiding federal taxes is in the news these days with Apple being in the spotlight.  Most of the times big companies avoid paying US taxes by skirting their profits to tax havens.  Healthcare giants can do the same theoretically.  Imagine if there were a health care giant that opens up shop in tax haven islands and then uses the same technique that commercial entities use to skirt their profits out of the country, thereby avoiding taxes.  This is very much possible.  The of shore clinics can be potentially used to complicate the tax return filing system here in US.  I could never understand why a completely US hospital system would like to open up a clinic in Bahamas.  These clinics are portrayed as the global reach of the entity but who do they actually serve.  We never hear about them in press or public.  These clinics are apparently manned by some doctors we never hear about.  How does this system work?  I really do...

The contest between PTI and MQM has been very interesting to me. The fact that unlike Lahore PTI has been able to win a National Assembly seat in the city of Karachi in itself is harbinger of some interesting and revealng news. Everyone is so ecstatic on the PTI wagon about breaking MQM monopoly in their own back yard. I will come to this later but the fact that PTI was unable to do so in Lahore is more telling of future that is to come. I think Lahore will now see the emergence of a different kind of PMLN. The kind that is built more and more on the work ethics of MQM. Anyone who resists will meet stiff and violent resistance at the hands of the overlords. I mean why is it so difficult for the PTI worker to win a seat in Lahore - Imran Khan's home town?  I think the reason Nawaz Sharif met with Imran Khan was different than what was broadcast. I think he had a message for Imran Khan that must have been a lesson for him in politics. I think there was an offer of truce in exchan...

I have been resisting the urge to expand my cloud imprint. It becomes a useless exercise when not a lot of storage is being offered free of cost. Therefore today I took a plunge and boxed myself onto the drive. This adds considerable online storage for use. Now all that is left is to wait for a day when otixo like file manager becomes available for free. Then it is a party indeed.

My iPhone 4s has been giving me troubles recently.  Out of no apparent reason the volume rocker has become self sufficient.  Whenever the phone is unlocked to do any work on the screen the volume starts increasing on its own.  I do not press on the physical volume rocker and the volume just increases on its own.  Just as if some one was keeping the volume up button pressed on the phone.  Sometimes if i just lightly touch the volume down or up button this is sufficient to trigger the volume issue.  This is very annoying as i do not like the volume on my phone to be high at all and now while i am talking on the phone all of a sudden the volume is at maximum and the voice is blasting through the speaker.  This problem has been driving me nuts.  Finally i was able to find something on the Internet.  It seems that this is a hardware problem with iphones.  Apparently their antennas ground the volume buttons and this causes the issue to arise. ...

It was a refreshing series.  I did not get to watch it online.  I blame Dish Network for being guilty of greed.  They make us pay arm and leg for their programming but could not get us the coverage.  I am paying for a cricket channel's package but still was asked to shell out money if I wanted to watch this series live.  I think dish Network should be ashamed of these policies.  I do not believe they alone are the ones who adopt this kind of strategy though. I was pleasantly amused by the results.  It has been a long time since Pakistan and India met in a bilateral series.  I would have liked to see a test series as well but Indians do not want to oblige us that much.  I do appreciate even this little series.  It was such a show.  Such a short lived stint but interesting nonetheless.

Tahir-ul-Qadri is trying to rally Pakistanis to come out in his support and march towards Islamabad.  His million march started last night from the posh neighborhood of Model Town, Lahore.  He left in his bomb proof and bullet proof 150 million Rupee vehicle.  It is also reported that accompanying him in this march is his own palace like mobile home.  The home has been custom built to have a sleeping area, bathroom with own water supply, air conditioning, media outlets for entertainment and is bomb proof. I am astounded by the need of a so called mullah to travel under such heavy guard.  I am also astounded by the fact that he touts this as a movement of the commoner.  If he really believes in this then he should not need protection form this common man of Pakistan.  Yet whenever he speaks on stage a huge void and thick bullet proof glass separates him from his 'followers'.  His die hard fans who supposedly will do anything on his command need to...

I think most of the overseas Pakistanis today miss a reliable source if news that connects them to Pakistan. Sure we have multiple media outlets that are trying to make us believe that they do the most reliable reporting but this is not true. In fact it is the farthest thing from the truth. Whenever I watch a TV channel from back home or try to read a newspaper I am disappointed by the level of dismay, disappointment and self blame all the opinion makers suffer from. All I can read is the things wrong with the society. All of them want to profess they possess the ability to identify all the ills of our society. They are so enamored by the onslaught of the media war that they just can not see any positivity in the daze of their own negativity. One almost feels like distancing one from all the bickering, blabbering of these actors. These actors who for small amounts of money are committing a monumental crime by disillusioning this nation. I guess that fault is our own that we a...

I would really like it if google stopped treating blogger as an orphan child. I mean they have updates for all the software with new innovative designs every day and they can not come up with a decent blogger application. This is sad. I would really like it if the current app would allow typing the post in landscape mode as that is easier on my thumbs and faster to type.

This experiment in education of masses, by coursera , seemed very intriguing to me from the very beginning. The upside of the experience was that it was free and endorsed by some big names in the education arena. I jumped onto the ship from its onset. Currently I am enrolled in a course that is eight weeks long and I think I am enjoying it. My goal for enrolling in the course was many fold. I wanted to educate myself about the health care act and I thought that there was no better person to learn from than Obama's health secretary. I also wanted to reap the benefit of free education. Then there was this desire to see how the education system works in America from a student perspective. So far it has been a rewarding experience. I have learned a lot about Medicare and Medicaid and the discrepancies that exist in the health care system in united states. I have also learned to more effectively compare our health care systems with others around the world. I now have a better idea of w...

The second half of last year was exceptionally and unusually dry. There was hardly an inch of rain for good nine months. Then there was brown thanksgiving and Christmas. Even the new years was bone dry. But then came march this year. It has rained more than eleven inches since march this year. I do not mind the rain much. Infact I look forward to some rain as it keeps the grass green and our water bill down. However once my roof started leaking I was really disappointed. Especially so since the apartments we moved into were supposedly brand new and modern in construction. They were not supposed to dribble like an incontinent man so soon in their life cycle. I think there are nineteenth century homes in this town that have more continent roofs than ours. It is also very disconcerting to think that all this leaking roof is going to breed a lot of mold eventually and then there will be no stopping the upper respiratory infections. I am disappointed to say the least. The bummer is that the...

Pakistan faced Bangladesh in the finals of Asia cup 2012.  I had a chance to watch some part of the final live on TV.  Bangladesh lost the game after a good fight.  The game was over in due time and everything went back to normal.  Only that it did not.  No one knew that Bangladeshi crowd and the board are such sore losers.  Having reached the finals of Asia Cup, they thought they were crowned the winners as well. Since that time Bangladesh has left no stone unturned to sour the taste of victory for the Pakistani team. One must realize that Asia Cup was scheduled after long and tiring tours for Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.  Bangladesh team was the only relatively fresh team in the tournament.  I also think that Sri Lanka had no interest in winning the tournament after a long but pretty successful tours of South Africa and Australia.  Indian team was in Australia for about three months and lost almost all games there.  Pakistan had ret...

Pakistan played a one day against Afghanistan in Sharjah.  Sharjah is the adopted home ground of the Afghanistan team since conditions are not suitable for home games in Afghanistan.  Both teams had something in common, both do not have home grounds available for playing games.  This is a sad situation.  But this also makes this match up interesting and unique.  Afghanistan did better than my expectation in the game.  They were able to score more than 100 in the game.  Then they bowled well as well and were able to take three Pakistani wickets.  So I would say that Pakistan win was good and expected but not thoroughly impressive against a non test playing nation.  Then again Pakistan's record against non test playing nations is not a very good one. I do think that Pakistan should have rested its experienced players and played with a different one day squad.  This way new players would have received some exposure. I was also interested ...

Almost ever game night I think of a most probable outcome to the ongoing series and almost every time I am proved wrong.  Just last night when I went to bed I had thought to myself that the result will be forthcoming in the third and final test between Pakistan and England during the second day of the match.  However, it seems, that I was wrong once again.  No sweat as I do not consider myself a cricket guru.  My know how of the game is no more than knowing the names of few players in my home side.  The keen interest that I used to possess appears to be there no more for well over a decade.  I do not sweat that either as for most part of the decade it has served me well to remain distant from the following.  Had I remained a die hard fan, I would have run into countless moments of dejection and despair.  But then again that is the whole point of the game.  To hope for the best and not get the exact result you want.  My reason for not fol...

Pakistani team has done it again.  They have pulled off another win against the number one test team in the world.  They have, technically, achieved this feat on a pitch that is away from home.  The conditions are similar but not the same in the middle east.  Pakistan has beaten England in the second test in Abu Dhabi.  I just watched the highlights of the final day of the game on Ten Cricket.  It was a treat to watch.  There has been no good news coming out of Pakistan or about Pakistan for such a long time that every little news that is good catches our fancy and makes us happy.  I think there is double reason for us to be happy on this win.  We beat the number one test team in the world and we beat the country that has given us relentless pain and agony for the past few years in the game of cricket.  English are shameless in the game of cricket.  The way they behaved with the test match controversy involving Inzamam and then our ...

The temperature outside, tonight, is minus thirty four degrees Fahrenheit. This includes the wind chill factor as the non stop wind engines seem to have turned up a notch. This is nothing unexpected of the arctic tundra but we had been spoilt in the last few weeks. The temperatures had been unusually mild. So mild infact that our neighbours were grilling outside the other day. I thought that was an unusual sight. Last year we had a reasonable snow cover. This year there is hardly any snow on the ground. But it seems that winters have finally decided to come with full force. The weekend ahead doesn't look any better either. I don't think they make cars for these extreme weather. I hope mine doesn't break down in the next few days. I have not seen temperatures this low in a long time. A run from Walmart to the car tonight was miserable experience. But I did get one thing done. I bought a warmer steering cover to keep my hands from freezIng.

Blogger is finally available on iPhone. I think this adds a lot of value to the application as for me sitting on my computer to type a post was not a very bright idea anymore. I think this saves me time in terms of logging in and opening up new windows. The application is pretty limited in its functionality. There is no landscape mode. This is my first post.