At last got the confirmation

I just got my TOEFL confirmation mail. My exam is on 11th September at 8 a.m. I am asked to report to the Prometric test centre at least 30 minutes earlier. I have to take a valid passport with me. Though I am relieved now, it would be better if my exam date was after one more week. Being anxious about the confirmation, I was not able to start preparation. Now I have got only 11 days. I have to hurry.

Yummy yummy!!!

Manjur bhai entered the restaurant, rushed to the dishes and brought this plate :D, and guess what, it was not his last one :D.

A memorable night

Busy at Emanuelles

Afzal's farewell party

It was an awesome great party. We enjoyed every bit of it. At first, we took him to some shops in the afternoon. After ransacking them, he chose a shirt. It was a nice one, Afzal was looking great when he came out of the trial room. He looked happy with the shirt. As we had surplus in our budget, we took him to another emporium and bought him a t-shirt for casual wear.

Then we entered Emanuelles (a famous restaurant for buffet dinner), we had a booking for eight people's dinner at 7 p.m. It was 7:15 when we took our seat. As all of us had not arrived yet, we started chattering. After some time, when others arrived, we went to the dishes to get the food. In the first round, we had the appetizers as usual. As everyone of us has visited this restaurant few times before, we were pretty experienced and had devised our own plan to rip the maximum :-). By the time we finished our second round, the people we found sitting when we came left. After that, we took some rest. There were two reasons, Manjur Bhai still hadn't arrived, we wanted to actively accompany him while he eats, and to regain some vigor to devour more :-). About 20 minutes later, we started third round. It was the time the waiters started being astonished. Another batch of people left by this time. The food was excellent. Most of the dishes were of meats. Though I like fishes more, I took all the meat dishes too. The red snapper fish, a fish fry (I forgot the name), moussaka and barbecues were among the most delectable dishes. Zunnun bhai, a renowned gourmet, was the quickest among us to engorge. Manjur bhai came, and guess what, we started the fourth round :D. The waiters were dumbfounded. We gobbled as if we have taken nothing before :D. When we rushed towards the dessert, we were fearing that we won't find anything in the dishes, as many people came and left in the mean time. We were relieved to see the desserts still there, though small in quantity. We had two rounds of desserts. The yummy pudding and caramel custard were our favourites.

After we gorged ourselves enough, we eased ourselves and started chatting again. Everyone was immersed with a sad feeling. We realized that we will miss Afzal very much. We had an excellent year together. Throughout this time, we were like friends and brothers. We were much more than colleagues. This was the first break in our team. We all vented our griefs. In the valedictory, Afzal said that he will miss us too, he will remember this one year forever, he will cherish the time he shared with us.

We came out of the restaurant at 10 p.m. and started for home. I am certain that everyone of us will remember this night. We will treasure the memory forever.

A nice interview of Mikhail Simonov

Mikhail Simonov is the designer of aerodynamics of the legendary aircraft Su-27 (my favourite combat aircraft). Here is a very interesting interview of him. He describes some of his thoughts behind the super-maneuverability. It sheds some light on the Russian doctrine of air combat tactics also.

Afzal's farewell today

We, the employees of Eyeball's Dhaka office are going to give Afzal a farewell today. The venue is Emanuelles, a renowned buffet restaurant. Shantanu, Palash and I are going to gift him something this evening. We will take him to the shops and let him choose something, may be some kind of clothing. He will come to the office tomorrow for the last time :-(.

Haven't got TOEFL registration mail yet

I am very tensed. I called the guy I gave money to use his credit card, he is telling me again and again that I will get the mail. I am being anxious.

A busy day

Yesterday was a very busy day for me. In the morning, I went to a family program, had a savory lunch, came back home at the afternoon. I missed the Jummah prayer. One of my cousins need to visit a doctor as she was very weak. At the evening, I met her in a hospital. She was advised to take a bag of saline immediately. I brought her home and called a paramedic. The saline was still not finished when I started for office this morning.

More disappointment from Google Talk

For last few hours, it cannot even log in to server. I am sure that it is no user's desideratum. I am losing heart in it.

Google Talk

I installed Google Talk beta. It fell short of my expectation by a mile. The audio quality was not very good, though I was talking in a LAN. I also found trouble to get the audio conversation both way. In my first attempts to talk to one of my colleagues, he could hear my voice but I couldn't hear his. The text chatting window is primordial. There is no emoticon, no file transfer, no games or imvironments. I understand that it is just a beta, these very simple features should have been included. Though all google products fascinate me, this one has a long way to go to bedazzle me.

Stuck at office

It is raining torrentially, but I wanted to go home now :-((. I have to go to the tailor's shop on my way home. I doubt I can do it. My wife is sick at home. When shall I be able to see her?

Viewed my blog through mobile

Yesterday, I viewed my blog through my mobile. It was very exciting. I could see the whole page exactly as I see in my browser. I was thrilled. I think I will visit my blog through GPRS quite often.

Sharna is still sick

Though she is not having fever from last night, it cannot be said that she will not have fever again. She is weak now and lost her appetite. She has not called on any doctor yet. Inshallah, she will recuperate soon.

My wife is sick

She has got fever, now her temperature is 101 fahrenheit. I must go home now but I have a lot of works to do in office :-( Anyway, I will leave now. Hope she comes round soon.

Met an old friend

After 8 long months I have met Omar, one of my closest friends, today. We had a chat for 3 hours. I took him to lunch. Though our chat was not fully a retrospective one, we recalled some of our old memories. Omar has been my bosom buddy for about 9 years. He is now working in a great software firm, he is enjoying his work. We exchanged our views to future. We conferred on our future plans. The lunch was great, we had vuna-khichuri with chicken and salad. We also had two Sprites. I relished the time with him.

Sent fax for TOEFL registration

Today, I sent a fax to ets for my toefl registration. My preferred date is 11th September. I am yet to receive any mail. I have bought a book and some cd's containing sample exams, though I haven't opened them yet. I am not finding the vigor to start preparation. Hope the confirmation mail will ignite me :-)

Another good friend is going

Afzal has got the visa of Germany. He has got a scholarship from European union. He will go to Germany first and then Scotland to complete a double masters degree. Afzal was my colleague also. We worked together for last one year. Actually, it is the time when our friendship flourished. We, along with three other friends, had a great time in Eyeball in last one year. We will seriously miss him. His company will be ever memorable to me. We shared many unforgettable events here. I will treasure all his memories till the last day of my life, I am sure. Hope he has a prosperous and successful life.

Had to come at office

Though I am against strikes in principle, I don't hate to take their advantage :-) (Is it a double-standard of mine?). Our office is open in every strike day, so I have to come. But many of my friends' offices are closed, that's what I envy. Had I been at home today .........

Strike

There is a full-day strike all over the country. It is in protest of the bomb blasts called by all the opposition parties. But, these strikes are nothing good, actually they are very detrimental for the economy of our country. I am fed up to see the asinine behaviours of the two major parties of the country. Instead of investigating the incidents, they are blaming each other and letting the original perpetrators escape. When will they leave this hypocrisy?

Command & Conquer Generals

This is a fantastic game. I just completed the three campaigns. Those were excellent. Now, I am playing the skirmishes setting the difficulty level to highest. But this seems to be very difficult (:-)) to me. The computer plays so quickly that I cannot cope with it. Most of the time, I am being wiped out before I can build a formidable force. I think all the strategy game players will love it.

I am sick :-(

I have been suffering from a chronic stomach infection. It is recurring every now and then. Yesterday, I couldn't go to office, I was having high fever. Today, I am feeling better as my temperature is still normal but I think the problem in my stomach is still there. However, I managed to get tonsillitis also :P. My wife is angry with me.

Found two great bengali song site

I am wowed by two sites www.amarshonarbangla.com and www.amadergaan.com. The sites have a plethora of bengali mp3 songs in their collection. The quality of the songs are great too. I suggest anyone looking for a bengali mp3 visit this sites first.

My first use of infrared

I just used infrared to receive a file from my colleague. I, once again, got a puerile joy. The transfer took split second, I was amazed to see the easy use of this stupendous technology. I think I will make fun with it frequently :-)

The Motorcycle Diaries

I have seen this movie "The Motorcycle Diaries" two days ago. An excellent movie on Che Guevara's historic motorcycle journey. A must see for everyone. It nicely delineates how the young doctor's thought changed on the journey. I have seen a Spanish version with English subtitle. If I could have an English version, it would be better.

Sengg98

I joined a yahoo group Sengg98 created by my friend Arbab. The group's ultimate intent is to gather all the s/w engineers of B.U.E.T. working all around the world. But, in this incipient stage, memberships are only limited to people of 98 batch. The group will eventually become very active communication center. People will help each other here in every professional aspect. We will hold a dinner in every first sunday of a month. As it is just in inchoation, not all the activities are planned. We have to have some brainstorming sessions to figure out what activities should be done/allowed in the group.

Friends' departure

Two of my closest friends, Mehedi and Eimon who are also married couple, have left Bangladesh today. Mehedi is going to pursue Ph.D. in UIUC. I wish them every success in life. I went their house today morning to bid them goodbye. I was in a melancholy mood. Though, in this modern world we can easily keep in touch by emails and instant messaging, the thought that I will not be able to see them for quite a long time overwhelmed me. They were supportive to me all the time during our friendship. In many of my crises, they were beside me, they came forward and tried to help me out. I am grateful to them for many many things. We shared a very good intimate relation. I am certainly going to miss them in the coming days :-(

A cool pic of Soyuz.

Here is my mobile:

Bought new mobile :-)

At long last, after ransacking the markets for many days, I bought a mobile. It's Nokia 6230. After buying this I was in a puerile mood, exploring and playing with my new mobile. I can't wait to show it to Sharna. It is a very good looking slender mobile with a VGA camera. Still pictures and short movies (length depending on the memory) can be shot by it. Its display is 128 x 128 pixel with 65536 colors. MP3's can be played and loaded to it. Lots of other cool features are there e.g. EDGE, BLUETOOTH, pc connectivity. I love my mobile, I must say :-)

Lonely at home

I am feeling too much lonely at home. Sharna is at Sirajgonj. She went to a cinema today. I went to two of my closest friends house. They are leaving Bangladesh day after tomorrow. I shall visit them tomorrow also. Though in last few months we have been in very little contact, I am going to miss them certainly. I am yet searching for a model of mobile which I shall buy. I have to go to market tomorrow too.

Filter: OpenSSL's best feature

I am immensely impressed by filters of OpenSSL. I just can't wait to use my first filter. Filters form a chain which is the best thing a programmer can want while doing cryptographic programming. The easiness to use a filter or a chain amazed me most. At the end of a chain resides a source or a sink. A source, as its name suggests, supplies data to be read. You can write data to a sink. To build a chain, you attach one or more filters with a source or a sink. Filters can do many things e.g. encryption, decryption, encoding, decoding etc. You just set up a chain according to your need, invoke the head of the chain, data will be read or written accordingly. For example, if you want to write some data in encrypted and encoded form, build a chain of this order EncryptionFilter->EncodingFilter->Sink and then write to the EncryptionFilter. Things are as simple as that.

Sharna went to Sirajgonj

I just came from the bus terminal. My wife, Sharna, and my sister-in-law started for Sirajgonj. Sharna will return on day after tomorrow. I may also go there tomorrow as it is our govermnet holiday, if I can get a leave on day after tomorrow. I will be anxious about their journey untill they reach there safely.

I will miss my wife

My lovely wife is going to her home district tomorrow. I am afraid about how I will pass time without her :-( I will miss her seriously.

Fell in a perilous situation

My boss asked me to provide a comprehensive documentation about a topic of which I am completely ingnorant. At first, I became seriously flustered. I did some hard work for 3 hours with little help of some colleagues and then finally created the document. I just sent it now, waiting for my boss's response :-). I guess I recovered well.

My Workspace :-) 

www.hello.com

I just installed "hello from picasa" from www.hello.com. I thought I could add a photo to my profile, instead it sent my photo as a new post :P Isn't it possible to add a photo without using an url? I am trying to find a way.

This is Me 

Shame on spammers

I just found that www.weblogs.com is used by many for advertising products. Shame on them. I just hate these spammer guys. I vowed to myself that I would never buy anything inspired by any spam mail.

Why isn't OpenSSL in C++?

I wish OpenSSL library were written in C++. It would have been much nicer than what it is now. Although it is excellent now, using classes are even more easier. I wish I could write one :-)

Colleague's prank

I was just fooled by one my colleague cum friend. He was masquerading our boss in yahoo messenger. We had a long time chat. At the end, he even approved my leave application. But after sometimes, when he confessed to me, we bursted into laugh. He might have enjoyed it more than me, but I also enjoyed it very much.

Network Security with OpenSSL

I am reading this book now. It is excellent. Some chapters are for developers, some are for administrators and some are for both :-) The first chapter is a succinct introduction to cryptography to someone who is new to this field. I think I will finish the book within next few days. The book is written by Pravir Chandra, Matt Messier and John Viega and published by O'Reilly.

The TLS Protocol Version 1.0

I was trying to read RFC 2246. It is very hard to go through it thoroughly. I will try to find some easy tutorial now. I think I will peruse it in some later time.

Exordium

Hi, this is my first blog. I am very much interested in blogging but fear thinking about what problems I would face if my employer finds anything that breaches the N.D.A. I even fear that whether they would allow anything related to my work published in the blogs in case they come to know about it. I don't have any intention to reveal anything sensitive to my company. Lets see what happens.

Here is me:


I am software engineer in Eyeball Networks Inc. I love coding and very much fond of C++ language. I am a server programmer in my company. I am a computer science and engineering (C.S.E.) graduate from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (B.U.E.T.). Hope to give more information about me in future.