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.