Phillips regrets missing 'easy' century!!!

Here is the irritating article: http://www.cricinfo.com/wivbdesh2009/content/story/413836.html?CMP=OTC-RSS. I found it irritating because I have not seen even any great players talking like this against any team. Firstly, it was not easy at all. If it were so easy why did not he do it? Isn't it a contradiction? Secondly, this discourteous comment shows that this new player does not have the right attitude towards this gentleman's game. I hope this rookie player will grow up and think before making any comment. Neither he nor his team can be proud of their skill and current achievements, so this kind of comment just make people look foolish.

Mount Annapurna IV Conquered by Bangladeshis

A group of brave Bangladeshis achieved the tremendous feat of climbing Mt. Annapurna IV. This is a 24682 ft high Himalayan peak. This is the first ever Himalayan peak climbed by any Bangladeshi. My heartiest congratulations to them! I am proud of them and my prayer and wishes are with them for their ultimate goal to climb the Mount Everest and hoist our national flag there. Here are two links for the news:

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=93071
http://www.eprothomalo.com/index.php?opt=view&page=24&date=2009-06-21

OS by Google?

At last what many predicted is going to happen. Google is starting to take shot at Microsoft's heart. They are going to offer a new operating system for netbooks. But the report defies my own prediction that they would build an OS based on Android. Google Chrome Operating System, as they call it, is going to be a completely new project. And what is most interesting for customers is that it would be either free or of minimal cost. I look forward to see what Google produces. I think once again it will deliver a fantastic product.

ClearCase

Recently I have been trying to use IBM's ClearCase source repository. I have used CVS for one and a half years and SVN for couple of months. Since I started to use CVS I became a big fan of source repositories as they made the life much easier for not only the devolpers who are working in a team but also who are working alone. The easy concepts of local working copy, branches, tags greatly facilitate managing codes. Their command line tools and GUI tools are all quite intuitive. But I am disappointed with ClearCase. It seems overtly complex to me. I don't understand how they came up with the complex ideas for a simple problem. However, I am trying hard to understand it and hopefully I will start to like it too.

Ice sheet melt threat reassessed

Researchers reassessed the sea level rise that can happen if WAIS melts. Previously the projection was 5-6 meters. The revised estimation is 3.3 meters which is still high enough to put low-lying countries like Bangladesh in a lot of troubles. We need to work faster to find a solution to this problem. The pace of green house emission reduction is no where near satisfactory. Actually, the emission is not reducing at all. We all should act as a responsible world citizen and adopt green behaviour in every aspect of our life.

PM okays draft MoU on N-plant with Russia

I am delighted to learn that prime minister okayed a draft MoU on setting up nuclear plant with Russia. It seems to be a great step to solve the perennial energy problem of Bangladesh. If this deal goes through, it will put an end to the agony people of Bangladesh are going through for decades. Though land was allocated for the project back in 1961, no government took any action to materialize the project. But we should be cautious and aware of the details of the deal if it is finalized in future. Previously, deals with large finances went horribly wrong because of corrupt people of our country. They sold country's interest for their petty personal gain. I hope this time everything is right with this new promising government.

Spiraling population challenges Bangladesh

Mahfuz R. Chowdhury wrote an excellent article about the uncontrolled population growth of Bangladesh. The concerns expressed by the article are very similar to my ones. I wrote about this population growth problem couple of times here in my blog. I expressed concern about it to Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of Bangladesh's current prime minister, here but got no response from him. I wonder when our leaders will start to address this issue.

Programmer Cartoons

A friend of mine sent me this link. It has some really hilarious cartoons. Enjoy!

Seal level not rising?

This is the first time I have read any news/article talking about sea level not rising here. It basically says that the sea level is unchanged for past 50 years.

News of arms found in Madrasa now in BBC

As an UK link is found, BBC published a news about it today here.

Change default shell in Linux

There is a simple command to do it: chsh [options] [login]. As an option you have to provide -s /path/to/new/shell. The /etc/shells file contains the list of currently available shells in the system.

Setup passphraseless ssh for Hadoop in Fedora 10

To run Hadoop it is necessary (at least that is what I know) to be able to ssh to the localhost without a passphrase. The Hadoop quick start guide has simple instructions on how to do that. The first time I installed and ran Hadoop was for a class project and I worked in a pc having Ubuntu 8.04. I could follow all the instructions of that guide without any problem. But this time when I wanted to run it on my laptop having Fedora 10, the passphraseless ssh was not working. I searched the internet for a solution and I found an excellent one here, thanks to Daniel Owen for the article. The trick is in the permissions. The authorized_keys file must have the permission 644. Anything other than that does not work. The known_host file created by ssh client also has the same permission.

Installing TrueType fonts in Fedora 10

I wanted to install four Bangla fonts to read some Bangladeshi newspapers. I searched the net for instructions on how to do it and found quite a few relevant results. But all of them used some commands which I could not find in my system even with full pathnames. They simply do not exist in my Fedora box. Then I just tried the following:

1. Opened a shell and changed to super user:
# su
Password: myrootpassword
2.. Created a new directory "banglafonts" in /usr/share/fonts:
# mkdir /usr/share/fonts/banglafonts
3. Changed directory to that one:
# cd /usr/share/fonts/banglafonts
4. Copied the ttf fonts to that directory
# cp /path/to/directory/having/downloaded/fonts/*.ttf .
5. Created fonts.dir:
# mkfontdir
6. Rebuilt the fonts cache
# fc-cache
7. Exited the shell
# exit
8. Restarted Firefox.

There may be some GUI tools to ease the process but my system do not have them and I also do not want to install something which will be rarely used. The simple steps described above are easy enough, even for a newbie, to install ttf fonts in a Fedora box.

Adding mp3 Support to Fedora 10

As mp3 support is not built-in in any Linux distributions, I was looking for some way to add it to my newly installed Fedora 10. I found some working instructions here: http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/25/add-mp3-support-in-fedora-10. There is one typo in the second command, it should be "rpmfusion-nonfree" instead of "rmpfusion-nonfree".

How to Determine Main Memory Size in Solaris

I was looking for a way to check the memory size of a Solaris machine I am working on. I found a blog post having three commands here: http://sysdigg.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-to-check-memory-size-in-solaris.html. I tried all three but only the following one worked for me:

# /usr/platform/sun4u/sbin/prtdiag | grep Memory
Memory size: 4096 Megabytes

Here is the machine information:

# uname -a
SunOS *** 5.10 Generic_127111-11 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-880

Bitter Experience With Kuwait Airways

Kuwait Airways is the national air carrier of Kuwait. I had the opportunity to avail its service when I went to Bangladesh on the 16th December. Previously I was very impressed with Emirates, another airlines of the middle east. I was so happy with Emirates that I rated it higher than the world renowned British Airways. Emirates seemed to be a perfect airlines to me. It did not miss its schedule, the crews in the flights were very cordial and sincere in their duty. Moreover I cannot forget the dinner ticket and one international call ticket provided by Emirates when I reached Dubai International Airport. The buffet at the gorgeous restaurant was unforgettable.

I thought Kuwait Airways will be as good as Emirates as it too is an airlines of a wealthy middle eastern country. But it gave me quite a contrasting experience. Almost half of the crews were Kuwaiti and their behavior was horrible. It seemed like they do not like their job at all and by serving us they are doing a favor. The rest of the crews of foreign origin were professional. I remember that one Kuwaiti air hostess was constantly frowning indicating her disgust with the job. In my journey from JFK to ZIA I had a 7 hour stop over in Kuwait Airport. The airport is ugly, it looked like a tent made of concrete to me. May be the design is a result of living in tents for hundreds of years. It had rooms for smoking. It is the only airport I have seen so far with this facility, none of the western airports I have visited, which are much much better than Kuwait Airport, had this (at least I did not find it). The fountains were dirty and filled with cigarette filters. The prayer rooms do not have any place for ablution. Kuwait Airways did not give me any hotel. It only gave me a meal ticket when I asked about it. The restaurant looked very cheap and small. The food was moderate. The quantity and number of items were fixed.

On my way back the experience was even worse. The flight from ZIA to Kuwait Airport was delayed by three hours because the plane could not arrive in time. This time I had a 17 hour stop-over at Kuwait Airport. Kuwait Airways was supposed to provide hotel but to my astonishment they refused to provide me hotel! There were many people who did not get hotel and were infuriated by this. We all protested and in response they agreed to provide hotel but only to U.S., U.K. and Canadian passport holders! People like me was guilty of having a Bangladeshi Passport! This time too they provided the dinner ticket only when asked to provide it. They did not provide the breakfast ticket though they clearly knew we are going to stay there for 17 hours and it will include breakfast time. Families with kids and old people stayed in the sofas of restaurants at first. But they were chased away but the restaurant stuffs.

I urge everyone to take lesson from this. Specially the Bangladeshis should be aware that Kuwait Airways discriminate against them. This is their return of our sending troops after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. On my return to JFK, I found that few Kuwait Airways crews are held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers for further security screening. Looks like Americans know better how to deal with Kuwaitis.

Bangladesh Population Reaches 16.13 Crore (161.3 Million)

This is an email I got in bdresearchers group:

Bangladesh population reaches 16.13 crore ( 160. Million ) : UNFPA report ...population with the present growth rate will reach 25.41 crore ( 250. 4 million ) in 2050 The population of Bangladesh has reached 16.13 crore marking a 1.7 per cent growth in the last one year, according to the latest global population report released by the United Nations Population Fund in Dhaka on Wednesday. The Bangladesh population with the present growth rate will reach 25.41 crore in 2050, says the report, released simultaneously in other countries of the world. The country's population in 2007 was 14.71 crore. The total fertility rate has, however, decreased to 2.81 in 2008 compared to 2.98 in 2007, says the report. It said the per capita gross national income dropped to $1,230 in 2008 from $2090 in 2007. The GNI of Bangladesh lies far below than other countries of the subcontinent like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka where the per capita income is $4,000, $2,410 and $3,730 respectively. The Bangladesh's GNI is slightly better than Nepal where it is $1,010. Unveiling the report on the State of World Population 2008 at the National Press Club, UNFPA acting representative Pornchai Suchitta said this yearο's report was focused on culture, gender and human rights. This year is the 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the report calls for culturally sensitive approaches to development, promote human rights in general and women rights in particular, he said. Gender inequality remains widespread and deep-rooted in many cultures and the report calls for action to increase cultural knowledge, Pornchai added. Men are primary decision makers about child bearing, contraceptive use while women themselves have no power to decide issues of their reproductive health, the UNFPA official said. He said the denial of womenο's right to take decision on reproductive life along with malnutrition, early marriage and violence are the reasons of incredibly high population growth, maternal mortality and child mortality and key impediments to achieve the millennium development goals. It is a striking fact that women and girls are three fifths of the worldο's one billion poorest people, women are two thirds of 960 million adults who cannot read and girls are 70 per cent of the 130 million children who are out of school, he said portraying the global situation. The UNFPA executive, quoting the report, said cultural constraints rather than poverty held women back from using family planning and programmes could succeed even if there had been little economic development. In Bangladesh, some laws are not women friendly and therefore they do not enjoy equal rights to marriage, divorce, guardianship and inheritance although the constitution provides equal rights to men and women in public life, he observed. Despite Bangladeshο's commitment to the Beijing platform for action to enact and periodically review domestic legislation to punish and redress violence against women in the home, workplace, community and society, very little is progressed in amending discriminatory laws and some of the provision of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, he said. In all stages of life, women suffer from malnutrition more than men and lack access to healthcare, the UNFPA executive said. The UNFPA is committed to contribute towards achieving the goals of international conference on population and development and the millennium development goals. Other demographic, social and economic indicators of the report show that the energy consumption per capita is very much low in Bangladesh, which is 158 units compared to 491, 490, 338 and 477 units respectively in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Additional director general of health services Hosne Ara Tahmin and UNFPA's programme officers Noor Mohammad and Mozaharul Islam Khan were also present. http://www.newagebd.com/2008/nov/13/front.html

Bangladesh vs New Zealand ODI on the 9th OCT 2008: Bangladesh Batting Highlights

After New Zealand made 201 for 9 in 50 overs, Bangladesh emphatically won the match by 7 wickets. Here is the highlights of the magnificent batting by Bangladesh:

M.S.A.'s Iftar covered in U.T.D. Mercury

U.T.D. Mercury published a cover story about Muslim Student Association's Iftar activities here.

Economic Incentive for Preserving Rainforests

Guyana's president Bharrat Jagdeo has put forward an excellent proposal to preserve world's rainforests in 2006. BBC has published to proposal here.

Interesting idea to fight global warming

Scientist John Latham has proposed an interesting idea to counter the climate change here. He proposed to increase low-lying clouds above the oceans. These clouds play an instrumental role to reflect radiation back to the space. To create these clouds artificially, 1500 ships are needed. These ships will be powered by wind which is good to know. However, each of these ships will cost £1m to £2m.

World View of Global Warming

World View of Global Warming summarizes effects of global warming to some areas in the globe including Bangladesh here. It says that the predicted one meter sea level rise at the end of the century will inundate more than 15 percent of Bangladesh.

Arctic Ice Chunk Breaks Away

About 20 square kilometers of ice has broken away from the Ward Hunt shelf of Canada. The ice chunk used to reflect energy from Sun to space. The split is likely to increase earth's warming rate.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7532435.stm

Allah's Name on Meat

A man in a restaurant in Nigeria found the following meat when he went there to dine:

The meat has names of Allah and the prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7520149.stm

Windows Live Writer

Zippy Zed introduced this nice tool here and I decided to try it immediately. I was looking for something like this for a long time. I have blogs in Blogger and Wordpress and I wanted to have a tool by which I can post to both of them simultaneously. I tried at least one such tool before but was disappointed. I could not even connect to my Wordpress blog. But Windows Live Writer makes it so easy! Using the tool is very easy. It needs only one click to publish. To publish to more than one blog, you have to switch current blog but the text in the editing area does not get lost. Then you have to click the publish button again. The only downside I found so far is the installation process. It took longer than I expected. But considering installation a one time process, I would certainly recommend it to anyone who want to edit blog posts offline and/or want to post to multiple blogs. This is a good job done by Microsoft.

North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer

Robert Roy Britt has reported in Live Science that north pole could be ice-free this summer. It seems that we are going to see changes caused by global warming much sooner than expected. Only twenty years ago people used to disbelieve the idea of global warming. But it has become a reality much quicker than what believers used to think. Global warming will erode world shore lines much faster than now in coming decades. The most severe victim of this phenomenon will be countries like Bangladesh. In fact, though sounds unbelievable when heard first time, Bangladesh will be drowned in less than a century if no immediate effective action against global warming is taken. As I told in a previous post, the people of Bangladesh are not responsible for that. Why should they bear the brunt of something they did not cause? I think world leaders should immediately pay their attention to this disaster mankind will be facing. They should not limit their actions to promises only, they should deliver on them. Lets not make any more delay.

NASA warming scientist: 'This is the last chance'

A prominent NASA scientist is still hopeful about the possibility of avoiding the worst of global warming. But he calls for action immediately to which very few people are lending ears. Here is the news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_sc/sci_warming_scientist

Bangladesh: Ground Zero of Global Warming

Bangladesh is a country under severe threat from global warming. Scientists and climate experts are expressing their concerns for Bangladesh for quite a long time now. While visiting the country, the U.N.Secretary General. Kofi Annan has warned the world about it. But nobody seems to care. I think very few Bangladeshis are aware of the fact that most of Bangladesh are set to disappear from the world map within a century. Though they are no one to blame for the cause, they are the innocent victims of some of the things people doing to lead luxurious life in other parts of the world. Renowned British journalist Johann Hari wrote an excellent article on the issue. In the article, Dr Atiq Rahman, a climate scientist, rightfully called Bangladesh the Ground Zero of Global Warming. He said, "My best understanding of the evidence is that this will probably happen towards the end of the lifetime of babies born today." So, the issue is not of far future. The new generation being born today will face this daunting problem. It is our duty to start thinking about it right now. I can not accept that my beloved country will cease to physically exist one day. We have to start looking for the solution. And it is also the moral duty of the nations who are responsible for this to prevent this from happening by any possible means.

A just step which was long due

Government has sued Niko for Tk 746cr over Tengratilla loss. In U.S. dollars, this is $108,786,005.024 in today's exchange rate. This was due a long time ago. But corrupt politicians did not let it happen as they had their stakes involved with Niko. Because of a conflict of their interest a minister of previous government was fired. Then we came to know that Niko has given him a luxurious SUV. This is just tip of the iceberg. Who knows whether we will ever know the amount of total kickback. My congratulations to the government for taking this bold step.

Pledge a Firefox 3 download

Pledge a Firefox 3 download here. It is going to be released on June 17, 2008. Mozilla Foundation is trying to set a Guinness record of maximum download in a day. I surely will do two downloads: one for Windows Vista and the other for Fedora 9.

A good article by Motiur Rahman

http://www.prothom-alo.com/index.news.details.php?nid=MTY2NTU=

It is in Bangla.

My Fedora 9 Desktop

5 to 7 elections needed for change???

Khandaker Delwar Hossain said today that five to seven general elections are needed to have change in party politics in Bangladesh. In my opinion, either he is mad or he thinks the people of Bangladesh are utter fools. I don't know which one is true but we should be aware of this kind of politicians who are hell bent against any change in the way politics was done in Bangladesh. Given a chance again, they will again form alliance with Razakars and loot the country as before.

In a democracy people get the government they deserve

Today I searched the net with this "democracy people get what they deserve". These are some of the links I got:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080514193701AAT1Qnh
http://onyxstone.blogspot.com/2007/06/democracy-we-get-what-we-deserve.html
http://www.perspectives.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=171995&forum_id=6&page=2
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070403035533AAc38xU

Looks like not everyone agreed on the topic. However, looking at Bangladesh, I think it is true. It is us who elect the corrupt politicians, traitors and god fathers. Then it is also us who blame them for all the wrong. Isn't it us who voted for them? Our democracy is only limited in election. In the first parliamentary session after an election, the opposition boycotts the parliament and makes it defunct until next election. Then they become busy burning cars and buses in the roads. This is how we practice democracy. We also have hard time to have the only element of democracy we have: election. The ruling party does everything to rig the election but when they are in the opposition, they cry for a fair election. I think all these are to blame on us, the people. No matter what these crooked politicians do, we vote them again. That is why it is true that "In a democracy people get the government they deserve".

Bangladeshi Inventor Has Demonstrated Fuel Free Magnetic Power!

The story can be found here. Giasuddin Kachi invented a generator which needs external energy to start but then on produces energy indefinitely without any need of further external energy. This is too good a story to be true. Some expressed doubts that this machine violates fundamental principles of electricity and energy preservation. Nonetheless, if the generator works who cares! In that case, it will be one of the greatest invention of mankind. All the Bangladeshis will be very very proud of Giasuddin Kachi.

Programming Languages: Current Popular Languages and Future Potential Ones

I found a good article about programming languages. It shows statistics about current popular languages and trends. It discusses in depth why languages like C/C++, Java and C# are popular and widely used. It also discusses potentials of some new languages while criticizes some. The article is worth reading for one who is interested in programming languages.

Bangladesh: A rush to the election, then what?

Here is a good article by GM Solaiman discussing some very important points which people of Bangladesh should mull over. Now that the election is nearing, people are forgetting some things which will return us to the old days of politics. All of the hard work since last year will go in vain if these are not taken care of.

A Win32 programmer criticizes Microsoft

Here is a great article doing some criticism of .NET platform which is meant to compete with Java. There is an interesting taxonomy of developers. Reader will also find a short history of windows API development.

Forecast for Big Sea Level Rise

A UK/Finnish team predicted that at the end of this century, sea level will rise between 0.8 to 1.5 meters. How much impact will that have on Bangladesh? According to Steve Nerem from the University of Colorado, 80% to 90% of Bangladesh is within one meter of sea level. Will our politicians stop bickering and focus on these national issues instead?

B.T.T.B.: the corrupt giant of Bangladesh

Some days ago in bdresearchers mail group, I told that the sooner we get rid of B.T.T.B. the better. This institution has caused more harm to our country than any other. Here is one more tale of its misdeed. After all its misdeeds for years after years, it again got complete control of country's only submarine cable on which the future of our prospective IT industry is lying. B.T.T.B. must be obliterated. To be practical, the process has to be gradual but this must start now. Instead of B.T.T.B. we can have a more powerful and larger regulatory body like B.T.R.C. which will monitor the private telecommunication sector and enforce regulations. We should have more open telecommunication policies for land lines and encourage more companies to come forward. In this way, we can ensure much better service for our people than what B.T.T.B. is providing now.

Article on Call Centers in Bangladesh

This is an excellent article by Zakaria Swapan on challenges of establishing call center business in Bangladesh. It is in Bengali.

http://www.prothom-alo.com/mcat.news.details.php?nid=OTM1MDg=&mid=Mw==

When will we focus on the root of all problems of Bangladesh?

Our biggest problem is not corruption or poverty. Our biggest problem is population growth. As a very small country of the world, we have very limited resources. Our only resource is our fertile land and nothing else. Though our crooked subversive politicians wanted to export gas for personal financial benefit, it is already proven that our gas is not even adequate to meet our needs. Despite of this very limited resources, we are continuing to increase the population at an unacceptable rate. Then we send our finance minister to rich nation to get some alms for us. What a shame! It seems that our duty is to increase the total number of stomachs in our country and other nations of the world has the duty to feed them. We must concentrate on decreasing our population by one/two children per family doctrine like China. Once the proportion of population to resources reaches an acceptable level, corruption and other problems will start to dwindle automatically through economic solvency. Today, apart from the top level robbers of our society, most of the corruption comes from bare necessity. Do we ever think how a government 3rd, 4th class employee can run his family with the mere salary he gets? They are bound to take resort to corruption just to feed their family. Until we continue to ignore our biggest problem, we are not taking a single step forward. With all our efforts we take one step forward but our population growth takes us ten steps back. Yesterday the Daily Prothom-Alo published a news that each year we are adding to our population a staggering 2.5 million people! This was stated by a high government official involved in family planning program. Prothom-Alo published it as an unimportant news. Others did not even bother to mention it. If such negligence continues, I do not understand how we can hope for better days.

An Interview with Bjarne Stroustrup

This is the latest interview of Bjarne Stroustrup. He discusses on several issues. It starts with the history of C++. Then it focuses on features of the upcoming C++0x standard. It ends with a discussion on future of the language. In my opinion, C++ is the best and will remain so for a long time for systems programming. It seems that Bjarne Stroustrup is also aware of that and focusing on incorporating features like multi-threading, file system manipulation etc. to the language standard. It was interesting to know that C++ was used in complex projects like JSF and Mars Rover, though it may not be the only language used.

A fantastic story of reverting to Islam

A Christian priest (Catholic), a preacher and a reverend reverted to Islam. Here is the wonderful story:

http://www.55a.net/firas/english/print_details.php?page=show_det&id=99

Apple's eccentric but successful tactics

Apple's Steve Jobs has a different management policy. Though it resembles the ancient old policies, today's silicon valley it looks odd and different. But as long as it is tremendously successful, nobody is going to complaint. Here is where I found an excellent article on it: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_apple?currentPage=1. This also discusses all the secrecy practices Apple does. This is a nice article detailing what Apple does to keep everyone guessing what it is coming up with next.

Ship Building Industry: A Potential Sector For the Economy of Bangladesh

Recently, a local ship building company, Ananda Shipyards & Slipways Ltd., has started building quality ships. It is doing great in delivering orders to foreign countries. We never had the shortage for skilled personnel to do it but we lacked entrepreneurship in this area. This company has received orders of worth $200 million recently from Germany, Denmark and Mozambique. This proves that we can build products with high enough quality to enter developed markets. As China and India is making huge money in this industry, I think Bangladesh also has bright prospect. As usual, if we look for help from the government, nothing will happen (a perfect example is IT industry). I hope more entrepreneurs will come forward to follow the example of Ananda Shipyards. The link of the story is here:

http://thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=23974

Mystery image of Mars

Is that someone walking on the surface of Mars? The image is taken by NASA spacecraft Spirit in 2004. Some says it is garden gnome, some says Virgin Mary. Some says it is the Bigfoot, some says it the Little Mermaid status of Copenhagen. What is your take on it?

Reference: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7205004.stm

Avoid LAB-Aid Hospital

I just received the following email. I felt that I should share it with all the Bangladeshis. The following is not an exception in Bangladesh. It is happening all the time. I do not know whether there are laws to prevent this kind of negligence or whether people are unaware or afraid of taking help of the laws. But something must be done to stop those greedy guys. They deserve some punishment.

Dear all,

My intuition of sending this e-mail to you is to raise my
voice against LabAid Cardiac Hospital and provide a real
picture about LabAid, so that the LabAid hospital change
their attitude with their future customers.

Please read the attached news paper article which was
published on The Daily Janakantha on 19 Dec, 2007, also,
please see the actual condition of my father while he was
under treatment at LabAid Cardiac Hospital:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnJZIg_x1KI

CAUTION: This video is very graphical!)

The person that you are watching on this video is not in this
world anymore! He died on 11 Nov, 2007 at LabAid Cardiac
Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh while treating under Prof.(Dr.)
Baren Chakrabarti, Prof. (Dr.) M. Matiur Rahman (who is
actually not a professor, but using this fancy title) and
Prof. (Dr.) Ali Hossain (the best doctors in our country with
some fancy fake title.!!!).

We trusted the fancy ads of LabAid, also trusted the fancy
titled doctors and nurses. But look at the real picture of
LabAid's CCU Bed No. 8. After the surgery they left my father
on the bed without any proper attention. The LabAid doctors
are so busy to catch another new CCU patient, which they
forget about stitching the surgery area of the current
patient. Look at the blood all over the bed! Look at.. how
clean LabAid's CCU unit is!

I raised my voice when I saw the real picture of LabAid. For
raising my voice I got slapped on my face in front of the all
the people by the LabAid G.M. Mr. Imran Chowdhury.

I am sure LabAid doctors who were involve with my father's
treatment has got a good amount of share from the bill, but
can they really tell that the hospital/or even the doctor's
has done a proper treatment for that helpless guy Mr. A. K.
M. Fazlul Haq (my father)? He was just lying on the CCU Bed
No. 8 helplessly for 15 days and expecting his sons, also the
doctors will take care of him properly. We have done our part
from the bottom of our heart; we were ready to spend all of
our savings and everything to get a proper treatment for our
father, because he is our father who took care of us
properly. But Mr. or Ms. Lab Aid administrators....Have you
guys taken care of my father properly? I am sure you did not,
because I am the one who is one of your victims. How come a
person who didn't even have any heart surgery or any type of
major surgery, but got a bill for 5 and Half lac taka (BD Tk.
5,00, 000.00, AU$8,155.00 , US$7,288.00)???

Dr. Lutfor Rahman (Head of LabAid's Cardiac Hospital) (I am
pointing you because you are the golden son of our country),
do you guys still wanna claim that Heart Surgery is cheaper
in Bangladesh now? On 11 Nov, 2007 when my auntie (Ms.
Sharmin Naaz, Assitt. Commissioner of Taxes, Bangladesh
Govt.) went to see with you regarding my father's bill that
time you mentioned about your contribution in Bangladesh. You
were also talking about you can make 1 lac take in a matter
of second. Well, done Dr. Lutfor Rahman...Well done! We're
really proud of your contribution (?) to our country! Here is
one of your biggest contributions to our country's medical
history which was published on the Daily Janakantha on 19
Dec, 2007 -- ("Lab Aid has become a human killing machine"
The Daily Janakantha, 19 Dec, 2007")

Life is very interesting Dr. Lutfor Rahman! When we lost our
love ones then we feel for it, but then we forget about it.
Instead of forgetting about my father's death, I want to
raise my voice against LabAid Cardiac Hospital and request
all of you to "STOP GOING TO THE LabAID for any heart
treatment" and wanna make those doctors to understand that
they should not play with any humans life, because no matter
how powerful or rich they could be, they will never be able
to give a life back to a dead man's life! So, STOP playing
around with a human life, OKAI Dr. Lutfor Rahman, Prof (Dr.)
Baren Chakraborty, also the others who are involve in this
human killing business!

The LabAid hospital needs to know a little bit about the
power of Internet in disseminating information. I will
request to all of you also do the same (when forwarding the
article, send CC or copies to the lab-aid related addresses,
so that the LabAid individuals feel a little shame every time
they receive a copy of this email).

Here are the email addresses of the LabAid individuals with
their full name:

Prof. (Dr.) Baren Chakraborty -
baren_chakraborty@yahoo.com
Prof (Dr.) Matiur Rahman -
prof.motiur@labaidgroup.com
Dr. Lutfor Rahman - lutfor@labaidgroup.com

cardiacsurgery@labaidgroup.com
prof.jalal@labaidgroup.com
cardiology_lch@labaidgroup.com
admin_lch@labaidgroup.com
marketing_lch@labaidgroup.com
hospitalcoordinator_lch@labaidgroup.com

Thanks for all of your time!

With regards,

M. P. Masum
Sr. Software Engineer
Accenture Australia Ltd.
Wollongong, NSW 2500
Mobile: + 61 401 485 243
e-mail: mpmasum@gmail.com

Why Java should not be the first programming language to learn?

I found this article "Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?" by Dr. Robert B.K. Dewar and Dr. Edmond Schonberg of New York University to be very interesting. I am in full agreement with these gentlemen in this regard. Actually, I told this to my friends long ago when I saw people are running to Java to avoid pointers of C/C++ and enjoy the ease of using libraries which basically spoon-feed the students. Not learning pointer is a big mistake. Also by learning how to use libraries at the beginning of one's programming career, one cannot grow good skill. Java is very good for rapid, reusable and easily maintainable software development but it must not be the first language to learn.

Dynastic politics in Pakistan

After the tragic assassination of Banazir Bhutto, Pakistan went to a disarray. The culprits are yet to be found. I do not know much about Benazir Bhutto's past achievements but seeing her courage to try to return democracy to Pakistan and defy threats on her life, I started to admire her. I was amazed to see that she was not provided enough security despite serious attempts and threats on her life. But I am more amazed to see her 19 year old son assuming the power of her party. It is not expected from a country which has so many literate people. Is this what they call democracy? How is her young son qualified as the party leader? What experience does he have? What kind of public support does he have? Was it decided by any voting process inside the party? Is this what they see in countries like U.S.A. and U.K. which are the epitomes of democracy? The irony is, they want to become developed country like them but they keep practicing corruption and all those dynastic crap. I hope my country will not try to follow that. I am afraid that some corrupt people of my country might want to follow example in future. People of my country must resist any such attempt in future.

Vista is not a disappointment

An article published in PCWorld says that Windows Vista is the most disappointing product of 2007. Their argument is that Vista is slower than XP and it has few problems e.g. slow file transfer. While I am not sure about Vista being slow, I agree with the later issue. Sometimes, Vista is really slow even when transferring files of size less than 1 MB. I hope this is a minor issue and will be fixed in the first service pack. But Vista does have some good features. It has significantly improved search capability. The program control is excellent and an effective tool against viruses and spyware. Microsoft did a great job writing the whole TCP/IP stack from scratch for Vista. The wireless connectivity is much better now. All the TCP connections are not immediately broken after the wi-fi connection goes out. I get enough time to reconnect and still retain those connections. The interface is nice though the 3D list of current windows is useless. But overall, after using Vista for about 11 months, I can say that Vista is not a disappointment. Those who are not satisfied with it should wait for the soon to be released service pack 1.

Khaled as GP model!

This is my friend Khaled Maruf in Grameen Phone's ad. He also starred in a tv commercial of same company of which he is also an employee. Though he has enormous potential as a model for a long time, he was not interested in showbiz before. However, I am happy that at last he took the right decision. Better late than never :-).

List of Shameless Dhaka University Teachers - as 102 vanished abroad with Tk 1.8crore

Reference Check http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bangla_ict/message/5183

 

As many as 102 DU teachers who went abroad on study leave owe Tk 1.80 crore to the university as they have never returned or repaid the loan taken before leaving the country for higher studies.

 

According to the university rules, an eligible teacher can go abroad for higher education with up to four years' study leave. During the study leave, he or she is entitled to receive salary and other allowances from the university.

Sources said the defaulters each had signed a bond before taking the loan that they would pay the money back if they decided to stay abroad.

 

Sources said 71 of these teachers are from the science faculties, five from the Arts faculty, 14 from Social Science faculty, two from the Law faculty, nine from Business Studies faculty and four from the Institute of Business Studies.

Among the defaulters, three are professors, 66 lecturers and the rest are assistant professors, university sources said.

Of the teachers of sciences faculties, 10 are from biochemistry and molecular biology department, nine each from applied physics and electronics, and chemistry departments, one from mathematics, five from physics, three from applied chemistry, four from applied chemistry and chemical technology, one from computer science and engineering, five from geography and environment, three from geology, five from statistics, two from applied statistics, six from microbiology, five from psychology and one from soil, water and environment department.
 

Defaulters List:

1. Management department teacher Mishkat Uddin who had gone to the US for higher studies and made no contact for a few years but recently joined North South University , the VC said the authorities have already sent a letter to his address.Management department teacher Mishkat Uddin was fired. He owes over Tk 1 lakh.
2. Nahida Banu, lecturer in biochemistry and molecular biology, was due to return to her job on April 1, 1994. The authorities have terminated her job as she did not respond to letters sent to her asking her to return. She owes Tk 3.5 lakh to the university.
3. Chemistry teacher Abul Khair Khan took Tk 1.6 lakh and was due to return to the university on July 1, 2001.
4. Md Salauddin of Bangla took Tk 3.12 lakh
5. Faiza Sultana of English Tk 4 lakh
6. Sudhir Shyamol Chowdhury of English Tk 1.44 lakh
7. Abul Fazal Md Fazle Rabbi of information science Tk 2.35 lakh
8. Monjushri Bonik of library management Tk 2.14 lakh
9. Saida Zakia Hossain of sociology Tk 1.84 lakh
10. Kawsar Kibria of sociology Tk 2.54 lakh
11. Mohammad Selim of economics owe Tk 1.95 lakh
12. Jahanara Begum of economics owe Tk 1.41 lakh
13. Dr Monsurul Alam Khan of economics owe Tk 2.78 lakh
14. Soumi Mostafa of economics owe Tk 1.82 lakh
15. AKM Mahbub Morshed of economics owe Tk 2.69 lakh
16. Saira Khan of International Relations owe Tk 2.15 lakh
17. Muna Hossain of international relations owe Tk 1.11 lakh
18. M Nurul Hossain of mass communications and journalism took Tk 1.11 lakh
19. Md Shamsher Ali of Institute of Social Welfare and Research is Tk 1.03 lakh

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=11593

Is this an acceptable behavior?

First of all, My congratulations to www.amaderprojukti.com for the excellent effort of making a complete Bengali forum site.

Mr. Mostafa Jabbar is threating www.amaderprojukti.com to stop using his layout. Oh wait! He demands the site to be shut down!!! The fact is they are not using his layout at all rather they are using a newer layout UNIJOY which is an openware. In a field like IT, where everyone is assumed to be a gentleman, this incident is the very first of its kind in Bangladesh. Here is the link:

http://forum.amaderprojukti.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=340

Bangladesh Biman!!!

Enjoy this very funny video:

Bangladesh IT Roadmap: a report by a true patriot

I found an excellent report on Bangladesh IT published for the public. This excellent piece of work has been done by Mr. Shahzaman Mozumder, Bir Protik. Going through his marvelous write-up, I realized that this person is not a so called expert who is trying to ruin BD IT by his sheer ignorance. Rather, this guy is an intelligent one who knows what he is talking about. You will know the sorry but very expected story of a government bureaucrat not paying heed to his report and later spawning yet another failed government project ( i.e. waste of huge public money). Apart from that, the report, wealthy in statistics and analysis, suggests some very pragmatic moves which are necessary to keep our hope alive. Here is the link:

http://bengalit.blogspot.com

Thousands of protesters are dead in Myanmar

Here is the link:

http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/15563/Burma_Thousands_of_protesters_are_dead

A hilarious news: Donkey eats buyer's money!

A donkey at an Algerian market ate the money of a man who came to buy him, making the unfortunate buyer and the owner wonder who the animal belongs to, an Algerian newspaper reported. Full report here.

A beginning of a new era of telecommunication in Dhaka

Dhaka Phone, a private land phone company, launched its service in Dhaka zone. This ends the monopoly of the most corrupt institution in Bangladesh, BTTB. It is high time to take care of BTTB's hegemony and rescue the management of submarine cable from its evil grip. The full story can be found here:

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=5209

Power Situation Improves Significantly

Load shedding in Bangladesh dropped to 200MW from 1200MW in recent days. In my opinion, it is a miraculous achievement. It was unimaginable during last 5 years. According to this report of The Daily Star, this could be achieved due to proper distribution of responsibility and more authority to engineers and electricians to take instantaneous decisions. This proves that we can also do better with our limited resources and man power. The only thing needed is a corruption free environment which is now provided by current government. I respect for this current government grew more for this achievement. Now, we can only hope that the next democratic government will keep up the good work of this government, not harbor corruption and move the country forward. We need to get rid of corrupted political leaders and their associates in administration. I hope we will achieve that before the next election next year.

Water can be burnt!

This is an exciting discovery. If this can be used then the problem of fuel will be solved for good, the world will be at peace too as wars will not be needed to secure hydro-carbon fuel. The complete story is here:

http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1570

Politics in Bangladesh - Comments made By an Expatriate in Bangladesh

I just came across this email in a mail group, thought I should share it with others. Here it goes:

Remarks regarding the former Prime Ministers, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina- Comments made By an Expatriate

Wednesday September 05 2007 20:28:58 PM BDT

Gregor, Bangladesh

As a foreigner I'm a guest in Bangladesh, living in Dhaka since February this year and will do so for a few more years to come. Politics has always interested me very much and so it was only natural that I would follow the development of my host country. What struck me from the very beginning was the hospitality of the people of Bangladesh. I was welcomed with open arms and never experienced anything that could be considered hostile.

The political situation in Bangladesh has an impact not only on the business community but also on the people. Unfortunately the responsibility is not with the caretaker government but with the previous governments, lead by said ladies. It was them who ran the country into turmoil and, to a large extent, destruction. They are responsible for the deteriorating relationship with our neighbors, the energy crisis which leaves millions of people without electricity for the better part of the day and many more ill developments, not to speak about paving the way for corruption, extortion and crime in a never experienced extent.

The same two ladies, who have nothing to their credit except one is the daughter of a famous father, founder of Bangladesh, the other wife of a famous husband, they are now concerned about all sorts of things. These are the same persons that catapulted family members and friends into the highest Government and party positions that deprived the people of Bangladesh of control about their constitutional rights, that lived a very glamorous life and there was nobody and nothing that would limit their lifestyle in any form or shape.

At the same time the overwhelming majority of people live of less then US $ 250 a year, have no air condition (and if they had, no electricity to run them), experience massive transportation problems, waste hours to get from A to B and would have a very limited choice when it comes to buying the needs for every day's life.

And here comes my point: Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina have the chutzpa to speak on behalf of the people of Bangladesh.

They pretend to be concerned about the rice price, the catastrophic consequences of this years weather and the many people that died, the political development of the country, democracy, election and many other extremely important issues.

They don't hesitate to address the very basic instincts of the people of Bangladesh, pull every psychological trick in the book just to (mis)lead people to believe they would care, instrumentalize and manipulate the press for their games and to top all of this, make the people believe they'd be victims of a witch hunt.

Now remember, these are the same, identical persons, that had every imaginable comfort, no limits on money, police clearing their way when they needed to use the roads; they snipped the finger and it was done.

My question is: Did they care then? Do they care now? Where and what is their contribution to the flood victims? It is so cynical to misuse the press to fabricate a story, like they would want to go to the victims and console the poor guys. What precisely is it they want?

My answer: They're more worried about losing their privileges and wealth, power and influence than anything else. They're not the least interested in the average Joe's and Jill's on the streets, after all their expensive shoe could get dirty. They want to keep their hands on things and take over and retaliate as soon as emergency law has been lifted.

A simple example shows that no lesson has been learned. Yesterday Khaleda made a comment to the extent that she would appoint a kind of substitute in case she's unable to run the BNP party business. At the same time she complains about lack of democracy. In my understanding a democratic process would be to allow the party member to elect a person. But no, she will appoint someone. Welcome to the democratic new Bangladesh.

I am in no position to advise or lecture you people of Bangladesh. From the bottom of my heart, I feel with you and I'm contributing from my own, private money to make a difference. Although I can't change the country I'd like to remind you of your strength, pride, self confidence and all the other values. Many of you liberated the country and helped to make it independent. Many of you are proud of your language, the Nation and your achievements as individuals and a nation.

They're innocent until proven otherwise! But in every democracy in the world the accused steps down and focuses on the trial or her/his private life. Here they keep manipulating the people, hoping they would probably venture into the streets and cause some headache for the government and the media provides the platform for the spectacle.

Please, liberate yourself from these two ladies. Let justice take it's course and if they're found guilty they should get the same treatment every criminal gets once sentenced. If found not guilty send them into retirement. Bangladesh has many, many talented and strong you women and men, which could lead the country into a golden future.

Thanx for allowing me to express my view, which is very much democratic too.

Kind Regards from a Peoples Friend of Bangladesh

Gergor
Bangladesh
E mail : gregorbd@bol- online.com

DU incident: the true story

http://www.ittefaq.com/get.php?d=07/08/27/w/n_zmkxmq

DU incident: description from a friend's email

I am very busy these days and cannot visit Bangladeshi blogger sites regularly, let alone write one. But recent incidents in DU were inspiring me to write something. When I was thinking to start to write, I received the following group mail from a friend of mine. I think I cannot express my thoughts better than this mail. Here we go:

Day 1: koyekta gadhar baccha NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) DU r koyektar sathe hatahati korlo. As usual, DU r polapain gelo kheipa...army r upor raag to onek diner (otherwise DU te dine e dhoroner hatahati 2-3 ta hoi). Third world coutry te ja hoi, jhamelar shuru te police thengano start kore (obossoi authority order dei, tai). ekhane o holo tai.  polapain aro khepe gelo.

 

Day 2: ok...issue pawa gelo...army camp shoraite hobe. DU r teachers association er moha-manob , jara student derke kapurush howar shikkha dei nai, tarao bollo, army shoraiote hobe, sathe police o. government ki r korbe, jhamela baranor dorkar nai, army camp shorano start hobe raat 8 tar dike. er moddhe polapain r police er moddhe maramari cholse aro koyek dofa. but eto shohoje army camp shore gele hobe naki? amader chatro dol r chatro league er neta ra onekdin dhoirai angula chustese, polapain salam-talam o dei na. eijonno raat 8 tar dike ek group polapain jokhon anando kortese, arek group tokhon nilkhet area te massacre start korlo. Dhaka college er udiyoman protiva ra to ready. New market r nilkhet e open chadabaji bondho bohut din dhore. ektu tight dewa dorkar. Chance to protidin ashe na. ei faak e nilkhet kno, Dhanmondi area te dokan gula aro dami, kach r gari vangar chance 2008 er election er age abar kokhon ashbe, k jane? maximum medhabi rai i obosso chatro na.

 

Day 3: Day 2 raat e ja start hoise, Day 3 te continue hoilo. moja hoilo, DU te police camp thkabena r RU othoba JU te thkabe , eta hoitei parena. Campus hoilo medhabi chatro der jaiga, ekhane boka-choda police er ki dorkar . so, JU r RU r osshonkh komolmoti medhabi ra vangchur start korlo.  Boloto, campus e police er kno dorkar nai? hijack korata ektu shohoj hobe. Oporajeyo Bangla theke Doyel-chottor jaite koijon thek khabe next 1 year e , k jane?

 

Day 4: thanda.

 

Day 5: ekta valo kaj hoise. kisu chatro neta r 4 jon moha-manob re dhoira niya gese. oderke thengaile asha kora jai,kisu info ber hobe.

 

ei government beshi din thakbena, coz amra bangali rai bar bar chutia der kase fire jete chai. shei political baal er alap. asha kora jai, kisu din er moddhei amader sommanito buddhi-jibi shomaj r jagroto chatro jonota mohan netri ebong tader sango-pango der kase desh ke abaar ijara dewar bebostha kore felte parbe.

 

(law enforcement force jokhon petano start kore, tokhon 100 jon er moddhe 40 jon niriho lok mair khai. oi 40 er moddhe amio thakte pari. better oi 100 jon er moddhe jate ami na pori, tar bebostha kora)

At last RANGS building will be demolished

It is a great news to the country. As described by one adviser, this building was the symbol of power misuse in the country. Now that Supreme Court has ordered it to be demolished, the construction work for the road link should be started asap. The top 15 floors will be demolished from Friday but I do not know when the rest will be. I want to see the link road as soon as possible. It will ease the traffic congestion greatly. It is another great job being done by this government. During the last fifteen years, this building only kept growing taller.

Microsoft surface

It will be a great thing when it comes into being. The possibilities are endless. The promotional videos can be seen below:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/

A muslim marine

He originated from Bangladesh, here it the link to the full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6755589.stm

The least expected from a national leader

This is not expected from a person whose father liberated this country:

From New Nation Online Edition

Front Page
Jt forces search Mokammel's house: Plot to rig polls uncovered
By Staff Reporter
Sat, 9 Jun 2007, 13:41:00

The Army-led Joint Forces have recovered documents on sensational designs to damage image of the country abroad and rig election from the residence of Awami League Advisory Council member Mokammel Haque recently.

Informed sources said the documents include copies of Sheikh Hasina's letter to US President George W Bush and the Embassy of the Netherlands, the party's election planning, including a design for polls tampering, and names of partisan bureaucrats in the administration as well as their party affiliations.

Sheikh Hasina sent her letter to the US President on January 9 this year. Mokammel Haque drafted the letter, which was fianlised by the AL President herself.

Contents of Sheikh Hasina's letter to the US President were full of elements damaging the country abroad. Contents of the letter were arranged in such a way that it could manoeuvre the Bush Administration in line with the AL.

The same letter was handed over to the Netherlands Embassy with a view to influencing its government to fuel anti-Bangladesh campaign in the Europe.

The documents recovered from Mokammel's residence also included names of persons, whom the Awami League (AL) wanted to appoint as Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commissioners and officials, whom the party wanted to occupy the civil and police administrations, including crucial Secretaries and the IGP, the DCs and SPs, during the January 22 stalled elections.

Besides, there were names of pro-BNP and pro-Jamaat bureaucrats, whom the AL wanted to purge from civil and police administrations before the elections.

The documents show that 80 per cent of the reshuffles carried out during the Caretaker Government headed by President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed were done on the basis of the AL design and as per its list of names.

In addition to that the papers recovered from Mokammel's residence includes names of 44 pro-BNP and pro-Jamaat officials, who attended the much-talked about meeting at the residence of former Chairman of the Board of Investment. The AL had sent this list to the higher level of the Caretaker government.

A file recovered from his residence, contains description of 22 government plots, which Mokammel Haque manoeuvred to allocate in favour of his family and relatives abusing his position when he was a Secretary.

Another file contains paper-cuttings of stories published in different newspapers about his corruption.

Intelligence agencies traced the existence of these documents on Sunday through tapping cell phone of Mokammel Haque, when he was asking his Private Secretary from London to shift those from his residence to one of his friend's house.

The Joint Forces immediately raided his residence at flat no 403, House no 20, Road no 62 at Gulshan-2 and recovered these documents.


© Copyright 2003 by ittefaq.com

http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/printer_36712.shtml

A timely remider

Editor Motiur Rahman wrote a good article on Tarek Zia. He must not be pardoned. Here is the link:

http://www.prothom-alo.org/index.news.details.php?nid=NzM5Ng==&PHPSESSID=c4dda7c6090ea871b38fbe89602aeba0

Shafi Sami & C.R.P.

http://www.somewhereinblog.net/blog/Arif-Jebtikblog/28712437

Joke of the year!

According to the Daily Janakantha, the joke of the year is - there is no existence of dynastic politics in BNP. This joke is made by Khaleda Zia. Either she seriously wanted to make fun or she still thinks people of Bangladesh are all fools. In the later case, the fool is no one but herself. The Daily Star news is here.

Radio Nakhojabad

From a friend of mine:

Citycell

Mobile phone operator CityCell is making about Tk 360 crore a year illegally, according to regulatory officials. A 12-hour raid on the company headquarters in the capital Wednesday produced evidence for the BTRC officials to claim CityCell, majority-owned by former foreign minister M Morshed Khan, was making at least one crore a day using illegal VoIP connections.

For more, visit http://media.bdnews24.com
Full contents on this site open to all at 2am (BdST) (8pm GMT)

Source: http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=4&id=7925#tp7925

Once, citycell was the only mobile company which was hundred percent owned by Bangladeshis. But I could never like this company because of its excessive greed. Former foreign minister M. Morshed Khan earned, I should rather say extorted, a lot of money when it was the only mobile company in Bangladesh. Each connection with a handset costed more than one lakh at that time. The coverage area was only gulshan and some part of its surrounding area. It was clearly a blackmail. Years after years they went on like this, they had no intention of enlarging their coverage area nor lowering the price. They were happy with what was going on. After GP, Aktel and Sheba telecom (now Banglalink) came, there monopoly was decimated. Though, as a Bangladeshi, I should have wanted the best for their business, because of their earlier nasty business practice and crooked owners I wanted the demise of this company. Today another dark chapter of this company is revealed which just validates my stance against them.

An example to follow

The education ministry adviser's wife, who is a government professor of economy, could not get a posting in Dhaka. The adviser did not abuse his power to do anything about it. How many times did it happen during BNP/AL (two sides of same coin) ruling in Bangladesh? I should better ask, how many times did it happen in the entire history of Bangladesh? I hope and pray that once an elected government comes to power, at least some of the people will follow this wonderful example.

http://www.shamokal.com/details.php?nid=60796

Biman

At last Biman is shaking up. The excessive manpower must be trimmed. The profitable flights like Dhaka-NY must be restarted. And to assert that Biman is not a place for easy corruption, Said Iskander must be caught by ACC.

Dhaka: Today's featured article in Wikipedia

Dhaka is the topic of today's featured article in Wikipedia.

Chowdhury Zafrullah Sharafat after BD win against S.A.

Uploaded by a friend of mine:

Smart Room: a great project by CSE BUET students

This is a superb project done by the brilliant CSE students of BUET. Quoting from the site:

This project is an attempt to incorporate some intelligence or "smartness" into a room. The room should be able to sense many things. If there is no one in the room, the devices are off. This saves unnecessary power consumption. When someone is in front of the door, the door should be opened automatically. When the person enters, the door is shut and the room decides how many lights to turn on depending on the current intensity of light. The fan speed is controlled based on the current room temperature. This way, people need not bother about mechanical switches. In addition, the smartness of the room can be disabled anytime. When the smartness is disabled, the room is able to understand Bangla and English voice commands and mobile commands through Bluetooth and SMS. The status of the room can be known through mobile. The room can also utter the temperature or time in both Bangla and English when asked by voice. Devices can also be controlled through PC software.

A report was publised in Prothom Alo about the project. For details: http://smartroom.awardspace.com/

Tarique Rahman's connection with Daud Ibrahim

It seems that he was not only a local godfather but also was trying to be an international godfather. If this allegation is proved, I think, it will give him the most pain.

http://thedailystar.net/2007/03/23/d7032301085.htm

A good cricket highlights website for world cup 07

http://www.crickethighlights.info/

Bangladesh vs India WC 2007 Highlights

The following videos are uploaded by my friend. Enjoy!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puTO-pzXXbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bj1qCkp8AI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a94_VG9TUuA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CljpnHU6P7E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTQ7Ay_ bMHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnl2UfYLHIo

 

Bangabandhu == Ziaur Rahman ???

http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/03/16/d70316012114.htm

CA is going to visit Bangabandhu 's grave. A good news. But wait, he is also going to visit late president Ziaur Rahman's grave at the end of this month. With all due respect to the late president, my question is, is it an equalizing effort? In that case, isn't it utterly unfair to equate a late president with the father of the nation? There will be and already are many late presidents but there is and will be only one father of the nation. There cannot be any comparison between Bangabandhu and any late president.

In this regard, I have one more query. Why single out Ziaur Rahman from the late presidents? What is his special achievement? I think he must be treated as any other country head (except Bangabandhu).

I think this is high time to reinstate the law to keep picture of Bangabandhu in all government offices. If this government does it, it will be above controversy and hopefully stay forever.

Shame on Yahoo!

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72972-0.html?tw=rss.index

Future of debased politicians

http://www.prothom-alo.org/mcat.news.details.php?nid=Mjk2NjI=&mid=NA==

The article by renowned columnist Kaiyum Chowdhury speaks people's mind.

Bangladesh Biman

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture speaks of the sorry state of Biman.

My Windows Aero Desktop

An excellent article on Tarique Rahman

Thanks Faiyaz for providing the link. It is one of the best articles I have read in the Daily Star. I would like to put it here:

Straight Talk
The rise and fall of Tarique Rahman
Zafar Sobhan

"Khaleda Zia is our leader
Ziaur Rahman is our philosophy
Tarique Rahman is our future"

This particular gem that has been ubiquitous on walls in the capital Dhaka for the past five years encapsulates perfectly the cult of personality that had been created around the person of Tarique Rahman and gave us a strong indication of where Bangladesh was heading had the January 22 election been permitted to go forward as scheduled.

Had the one-sided election been consummated, we would have been looking down the barrel of the Tarique Rahman raj. The last five years he has grown steadily in power and influence as the joint secretary general of the ruling BNP, recently promoted to "senior" joint secretary general, lest there remain any confusion as to who really ran the party, and, by default, the country.

Tarique Rahman's rise and consolidation of power has been a stealthy and, in many ways, ingenious process. The cult of personality which was skillfully developed despite his lack of any discernible charisma or acuity or any of the other qualities one would expect to see in a leader (in this he is not unique, see e.g., Bush, George W.) was just one part of the process.

In these days of rent-a-crowds, stage-managed public appearances, and embedded journalism it is not difficult to create an aura of leadership and popularity around a presentable-looking young man, especially if he happens to be the eldest son of a respected ex-president and freedom fighter, especially in a country where, regrettably, too many people are all too happy to ignore simple things such as truth and consistency when it comes to their political self-interest and pledging their allegiance (indeed, one could argue that the entire BNP was established on this foundational principle), especially in a country so starved of good leadership that the impressionable and opportunistic are eager to latch on to any new thing.

Hand in hand with the cult of personality went the slow-motion take-over of the party (the senior partner in the coalition ruling the country, mind you) apparatus, placing Tarique loyalists and sycophants in every nook and corner, even to the extent of squeezing out long time party-men who refused to bow down before the brash, new dispensation.

Matters came to a head last August 26, when the young Turk's of the party's national executive committee took serious exception to some of the party's senior leaders and demanded their immediate expulsion from the party for having the temerity to criticise Tarique. Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, deputy minister for land and a close associate (incidentally, now also in jail) went so far as to state: "BNP means Zia Family. He or she should be expelled from the party who will speak against this family."

Indeed, it was precisely this tendency that resulted in BNP founder members Dr. Badruddoza Chowdhury and then Oli Ahmed as well as a host of others being essentially forced out of the BNP and into first the BDB and then the LDP. The only reason there wasn't a more pronounced exodus was a well-founded fear of retribution and the combination of cringing sycophancy and grasping opportunism that marks Bangladeshi politics.

The hallmark of Tarique's ascendance and the closest we can come to in terms of an approximation of his vision for the country was the systematic centralisation of all crime and corruption: from the grandest of grand larcenies to the pettiest of petty larcenies, the idea was that nothing would escape the net of his influence.

Be it transporting a truck-load of vegetables from the north to Dhaka or selling those same vegetables in the market-place at Karwan Bazar, no transaction was too small to escape the attention of Tarique's coterie. The taxes or "tolls" that small traders transporters had to pay that eventually found their way to Hawa Bhaban make the NBR look like a charitable foundation.

The system in place for collection of tolls was fully computerized (though, no doubt, those computers are now to be found at the bottom of the Buriganga) and so sophisticated that one wonders whether Tarique and his coterie might not have been able to achieve something for the nation if they had had even the slightest inclination towards the common good instead of concentrating so single-mindedly on looting the country and establishing their reign of terror throughout the land.

From the power sector to the import trade, there was no corner of the economy that did not fall under his shadow and that his all-encompassing reach did not touch.

Until January 11, Tarique Rahman was the most powerful person in the country, indeed he was the most powerful behind the scenes power broker Bangladesh has ever seen. Considering that he was neither a member of parliament nor held any executive position, his reach tells us all we need to know about the sorry state of Bangladesh politics.

And had January 11 not happened, Tarique's reach would only have gotten more suffocating, his foot-print heavier. Had the four-party alliance returned to power, nothing could have stood in his way, he would have ascended from crown prince to king. Bangladesh would have been turned into a nasty police state where nothing would have moved without his consent, no dissent, no rule of law, no opposition, absolute power.

Tarique was selling himself, inside the country and out, as Bangladesh's Mahathir Mohammad, although any resemblance between the two is purely imaginary. Our foreign friends were willing to hold their nose and tolerate him, thinking, perhaps, that here was a man they could do business with and who would be ruthless enough to be able to deliver to them the wealth he did not loot for himself. Some countries have always had a soft spot for pliable third world despots.

When the days after the first spate of arrests began to pass without his arrest, concern began to mount that he was not being taken in. No list of the criminal and corrupt would be complete without his name at the top.

On the one hand, we were told, in whispers, to wait, to be patient, the authorities were preparing an air-tight case, Mamun was singing like a canary, the noose was tightening, they would go for Tarique when the time was right.

On the other hand, we heard of army units remaining loyal to him, we heard of the authorities setting out to arrest him and then pulling back three times, we heard of desperate back-room deals to keep him and the rest of his coterie out of jail.

Everyone knew: as long as Tarique Rahman remained at large, his poisonous coterie remained alive and able, potentially, to regroup and turn things around.

Now he is in jail. Others were swept up with him in another dramatic midnight raid. Some, doubtless, deserving, but others, again, of doubtful criminality. Still, "balance" has to be maintained at all times, I suppose.

But the message has been sent. Tarique's goons who have terrorised their localities with impunity for the past five years will now run for cover. He can't protect them any more, and now that he is behind bars, the house of cards that he and his coterie built up will start to tumble.

Perhaps I am speaking too soon and he can conjure up a resurrection from his jail cell, but this seems unlikely. The authorities know how fateful a step it is putting him in jail. He hasn't been incarcerated only to be sprung on a technicality to wreak vengeance on those who put him there.

I do not know where things will go from here, for good or for bad, but the five-year stranglehold Tarique and his associates had over the country, that they considered their birthright and personal fiefdom, had to be ended. Our long national nightmare is finally over.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.

Crown prince Tarique with a crown on his head and in a royal garb!

Oops! I guess this is not the crown he wanted!

A soothing news

In last few days, there were increasing number of fake cries from SK Hasina and Khaleda Zia for return of power to the people i.e. themselves. I was being disturbed with it. The recent ban on indoor politics should be able to curb those hypocritical howls. All they know is power. SK Hasina, despite knowing that she will certainly win the next fair election, can't wait few more months. She is fool enough to not to understand that if the prosecutions can be completed she will be the most beneficiary of them. People will have no choice other than to vote her party as currently they represent the lesser evil (a term coined by a friend of mine, I like it :-) ) of the two. I doubt on any significant influence of Dr. Yunus's new party in that election. It is too early for him. I think AL and their staunchest supporters should stop gearing up their propaganda machines and allow some time to the CTG to finish the cleaning up. After that, they will have full five years to loot the country again.

Prince stripped of glory

At last the much anticipated event took place. People were counting days for it. Some pessimists even started doubting on whether CTG will ever do it or not. Now the issue is settled. CTG has achieved what could not be achieved by anyone else, not even by BAL in 100 years. We have every reason to celebrate. I guess sweets will be distributed in some places of Bangladesh. But we must not forget that this is a great achievement but is not enough. It is a great victory for the people of Bangladesh but it is only partial. CTG must build strong cases with evidences and make sure that the prince can not get back home ever. If it can do that, it will be a great example of justice for our country. People will think ten times before becoming corrupt. Sons of prime ministers and ministers will stop thinking that Bangladesh is their inherited property. I wish CTG all the best. These are some real brave people no matter what some staunchest supporters of political parties say. They will hold high place in our history for what they have already done. Great work!!! Please keep it up and save the nation.

Voter ID card preparation to take one year, says expert body (???)

Here is the news:

http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/03/06/d70306011713.htm

From newagebd, I found that the expert body was headed by Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury and IT Specialist Mostafa Jabbar was a member of it. Can anyone tell me how they qualify to their respective posts? Isn't there anyone in Bangladesh other than a civil engineer, who wrote few programs in his student life, to lead the committee? How much expertise does he have? How does he qualify as an IT expert? What are his achievements in IT field? And since when Mostafa Jabbar became an IT Specialist? What did he do which brought him the title? Does designing an unscientific keyboard layout and having it coded by Munirul Abedin Pappana makes him an IT Specialist? I am a graduate of computer science and doing graduate studies at this moment. If I come up with an arbitrary Bengali keyboard layout tomorrow, shouldn't I get a seat in that committee? I am sick of these people. How long will we drain millions of dollars for these ignorant people? How long will they have pleasure trip to the west by poor people's money in the name of observing their systems? Isn't there anyone in the current government to get rid of these people from this committee of vital national interest?

ID card: Where do we stand?

This is an excellent article written by Dr. S. M. Lutful Kabir of B.U.E.T. on national ID card. Considering long term goals, government should follow his suggestions.