Crow's Nest...

I have been trying to follow the general assembly proceedings through various media outlets.  It is nothing new but still is heart wrenching to see how differently various media outlets have covered the stories that have come out of the proceedings.  I do not feel that there is any end in sight to the conflicts in the middle east.  Not at least in my lifetime.  This drama will continue to marginalize and eventually radicalize people on both side of the border and peace will then have little chance to work its magic.  This indeed is unfortunate. Our first crop of home grown all natural cucumbers has been harvested.  Surprisingly it took little effort and the fruit is none the less sweet and fresh.  We are really enjoying the freshness of the cucumbers and have forgotten about the rotten product that is sold in the mega malls.  However this fun is short lived as winter is approaching fast and soon everything will turn white again.  I th...

It has been quite some days since I updated my droid x to gingerbread. My experience with the update has been anything but optimal. I think the battery life has been decreased on the phone easily by twenty percent or so. The battery prior to this update used to last for about twenty four hours or so with very mediocre use. I mostly use my phone for web and data usage rather than as a phone. I am not that famous as you can tell. The battery on the new version of android has gone terribly low. This is unlike what I had expected or read. However I am pretty sure that the phone is not lasting as long as it did prior to the update. Also my phone is relatively new so I do not think that this is a problem with the phone battery itself. I have also noticed that the phone is running much hotter on the backside as compared to before. If the gps is turned on for a little bit it heats the phone to an extent that it can not be held in the hand. This is a serious issue in my mind. Just returning fr...

I have been hearing reports on the Internet that Verizon wireless and motorolla will be pushing software updates for the droid x today. Engadget and other blogs have been ripe with chatter about this information. This update is badly needed and sorely missed on this phone. I have been trying to update my phone but keep on getting the message that there is no update available. So I called Verizon wireless and met the most clueless operator. She could not understand a word of what I said in three different tries. Finally when the message got to her she was blunt and told me that she had no answer to my question because Verizon wireless is not responsible for pushing this update to the phone but the maker of the phone will do this. Even though it is the Verizon wireless document that is everywhere on the Internet about the update. Anyways I went ahead a chatted with the motorolla representative who was someone sitting in india reading the Internet to help answer ny questions. It seems li...

The new iPad is worth it's money. Sleek slender design is a plus and so is the light weight. I am not really impressed by the camera as the pictures with both front and back cameras are pixelated and very amateurish looking. It's handy in the sense that I can carry it around while making rounds and access patient information on the go. This makes life easier and for someone like myself this means much less paper waste. I think one added advantage is that I will waste less time on writing down all the information on a piece of paper every morning and will be able to pull it up anytime I want to do so or need to do so. This gives me more time to think and reflect on the patient and spend more time with the patient rather than time in front of a bulky computer. There are new apps I am discovering every day. However there is still dearth of good medical apps that have been modeled for iPad. This makes the productivity of the iPad a little less but still the benefits of having a w...

The snow is falling yet again. There was in interval of time in the past one week when spring seemed to be a fulfilling reality; alas! no more. In the next 24 hours the white cover will engulf everything that had dared to raise its head from the snow dunes. Everything will be fresh and white. For some a delight and for others another torment. I belong to no particular group when it comes to snow. All I care about is my drive to and fro from work. If that goes smoothly there is no reason for me to be alarmed. While we are knee deep in snow in the north western part of the world the warmer climates are souring with the tempers of their inhabitants. From Iran to Senegal there seems to be a wind that will settle scores of counts in just one blow. The forefront of the change happening there is fancier than the real change. I am a reluctant believer. I see similar faces and similar cronies replacing older tired ones. Democratic struggle, it seems, has become a farce. People ar...

I was away on vacation to NY for the past few days. The purpose of the trip, mainly was to acquire a new passport in face of the current one expiring soon. In any case I used Expedia to search for a place to stay and was directed to a place in Queens area. This was perfect since there is a lot of Pakistani community living in Queens and one can feel at home in such a place. I landed in NY and got to the hotel. To my amazement it was nothing close to the one in the pictures. Small cornered building and even smaller corridors and rooms. It reminded me of out dorms in the medical school. The room was smaller than out apartment bedroom and it was crowded with furniture. Flat screen TV had some channels that did not work and the channel line up was very limited. Towels were old and not very clean. I guess they were washed but still had some stains on them. The good thing about the hotel was that it was about 10 minute walk from the subway and the walk was safe even in late night ...

Ever since I changed the template for my blog I have been getting a lot of spam in my comments. I think by changing the template I somehow also changed the way comments are handled on the blog. This lead to spam spewing over the page. Spam is the bane of our existence on the internet. Emails are full of spam messages and there are whole folders dedicated to handling of spam. One of the reason I like Gmail is that it has really good customizable filters for filtering out spam.