Crow's Nest...

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. ...