The Dreaded Software Architecture Assignment

This post might be a little technical for some of you, but what the heck.

Geek/Nerd/CS Talk:

I have to turn in a "Software Architectures" assignment on Thursday, two days from now. The assignment requires extensive and rigorous thinking. The goal of the assignment is to first research a complex software system on the internet, one that each student chooses himself/herself. After that, it has to be analyzed by each student seperately and the following is to be submitted:

1. Write out its requirements, architecture/design, test cases/scenarios, and get its source code.

2. The requirements have to deal with first, a set functional requirements and then non-functional requirements for each product quality.

3. We are to specify further, what requirements have global impacts and which have local impacts, from the superset requirements described in point 2.

Time to get cracking on the assignment. I have 48 hours to complete it. Never think of it as 2 days.*Wink*.


Wish Dispenser:

I will be adding a short section under each of my new posts about wishes I want to give out to my friends and loved ones. Here goes the first part. This might not be a regular feature, because I am such a miser handing out wishes.*Cough*.

Samar: I hope you have fun at your Uni and start liking it soon.

P.S: If I missed any of you out, it's cuz I forgot and not cuz I wanted to, so be sure to remind me.

Filed In: [ | assignment | software | architecture | wishes | ]

I-20 Fixed And Template Fiddling

Got my I-20 fixed today along with my brother's. The error was not hard to fix at all. Instead of 4 weeks, all it took was 4 minutes for the SEVIS coordinator to correct it. I don't what the story was with the previous error taking 4 weeks, but oh well, everything is fine and our I-20s are fixed.

The weather was unusually hot today and it felt good to be out and about in shorts and a t-shirt. The weather is slowly going to go warmer and warmer and I am waiting for it to be just that. Warmer.

I fiddled around with the template today. For some reason, the colours were looking mighty off again at the lab. The middle and left and right column colours are going to be a little different for some of you. Some of you might not notice the change at all. But the colours, now, would be what I always wanted them to be. So Enjoy.

On the other note, life is slowly settling down. Being 25 is no different from being 24, so far that is. Maybe down the road things will change. Somethings have already changed. I feel as if now I have crossed the threshold where, I can stop thinking of myself as young and competing with the younger guys. It is time to compete with another league of people and I think I am up for it. Now to graduate with Honours and get a Top Job. That will be my first competition and boy, AM I looking forward to it. Somehow, I feel, right now, I can rule the world if I wanted to.

Filed In: [ | I-20 | motivation | template | ]

Assignments and more Assignments

I am swamped with assignments from my "Computer Networking" and "Software Architecture" classes. Just one week into classes and I have already gotten em. That is what USC is like. Ah well, that was expected going into the 7th ranked Engineering and Sciences school in the US. They aren't overly hard assignments and should not be a problem. I am already halfway done for one of them while I still have to do the other one.

On other note, the weather in Los Angeles has been fantastic. Wearing shorts when most other people are wearing pull overs is kind of weird but considering I came from Michigan, the cold in LA is a joke compared to Michigan. Loving the weather over here. Not hard to see why so many people fall in love with California.

USC told me my new I-20s were ready after the data entry error they made. But guess what? They made another error on the new ones and it will take another 4 weeks to correct that. So back to the drawing board for the USC Office of International Services. I hope the Department of Homeland security doesn't give me flak over this. I should be alright, since the error was not my fault.

Filed In: [ | assignments | networking | software | architecture | OIS | I-20 | ]

Semester Picking Up Speed

The semester is starting to pick up speed now. I have already gotten assingments to hand in for next thursday. They are not overly hard but still require a little bit of brain to do. I will most definately try finishing them over the weekend. I finally picked up "Computer Networks" instead of either "Computer Graphics" or "Analysis of Algorithms". This way I intend to lessen the course load on me during my first semester at USC and still get all As, inshAllah.

I went to the Health Center and got myself bloodtests for vaccines, that are required by the University. Why should I get a live vaccine when I don't need it? Better to be safe. I will get to know the results by Friday and then, I can see if I need the vaccines.

My birthday passed well and I recevied a lot of well wishes and happy returns of the day. Thanks all you guys.

Filed In: [ | spring | semester | USC | ]

Happy Birthday and Good Luck

On 17th January 1981, I was born into this world a healthy baby. In a few hours time, I will be 25 years old. 24 years of my life are over, and I start the 25th year with immense and innumerable challenges. I start anew today as I started anew 25 years ago. I start fresh, as I make a quest to spend, god knows how many more years, in this world. I plan on making myself a better human being. I intend to slay my demons, and lay them to rest once and for all. I intend to be a better son, a better brother and a better friend and a good husband, father when the times comes, but the most, I want to be a better muslim. Good luck to me and may the remaining years of my life be as beautiful and wonderful as the first 25 were. May Allah grant me strength, courage and resolve. Ameen.

Filed In: [ | birthday | ]

Course Doldrums

The semester is going into second gear next week and things are speeding up. I will be busier than usual. I am finally settling to Los Angeles and I love the weather out here. It is almost the same as Saudi Arabia where I lived almost all my life. The weather gets a little warmer when the sun is shining for a while but as the sun sets, the temperature drops significantly. While most of the US has snow dropping right now, Los Angeles has pleasent temperature.

I went and tried to register for my "Analysis of Algorithm" course and was told it is full and I will have to join the waiting list for the couse. So I did that. Now I will find out if I got the course or not by Wednesday. The advisor said I have a 99% chance of getting it. It remains to be seen if I will. Pray that I do, because, I love the couse.

Filed In: [ | course | los | angeles | ]

Template corrections

I made a few changes to the template colors and now they should be working fine on ALL computers. I did a little trickery to the way how colors are shown. Let me know if it looks all preety to you now.

On the other front, classes have been going ok but I will probably change one course for another one with "Computer Graphics" going out the window and "Analysis of Algorithms" coming into its place. I have to meet my advisor tomorrow for that and get departmental clearence. I am going towards more of a Software Engineering lean in my course selection and "Computer Graphics" doesn't really fit into that. Analysis of Algortihms, is much better with SE.

Filed In: [ | template | css | CS | ]

Consensus and Feedback

I opened my webpage today at one of the many labs at USC, and for some reason, the computer was displaying my colors all wrong. The background was dirty yellow instead of the creamish colours I have originally envisioned. So I want some of you guys to please give me feedback on how they look on your individual PCs. I would appreciate that. Below I am writing the colors as I envisioned them (as how I see them on my own PC and a lot of others, including my dad's and my brother's), and what I saw today at the lab. You tell me which one is closest to what you are seeing based on those two.

Originally Envisioned Background: Creamish Khakhi
Viewed Color at Lab: Dirty Yellow

Orignally Envisioned Heading color: Yellow
Viewed Color at Lab: Yellow ( No difference here, I believe it looked the same).

Originally Envisioned Side and Main Column Colours: Beige OffWhitish
Viewed Color at Lab: Dirty Yellow shade.

Thanks for doing this for me in advance.

Filed In: [ | colours | webdesign | feedback | ]

Eid Mubarak

عيد مُبارک

Happy Eid / Eid Mubarak to all of you guys. I hope you guys have loads of fun frolicking with your families and stuff. I am stuck alone in the US without my family, so not much of an eid for me. You guys have a good one now and remember to not party too much now.. No wait, thats for me, not for you.

Party on!

Filed In: [ | eid | ]

Slow Weekend

The weekend before classes on monday is passing slower than I expected. It is like the silence before the storm. Everything is quiet. The storm will surely start on monday though and I am all prepared, ready and buckled up for it. I've been looking forward to classes starting for a long time now. Been mozeying around and doing nothing worthwhile for a few months now. Finally some direction in my life again.

I managed to correct the problem with my glasses today, to some extent. All is well in spectacle land today and I hope it stays that way. I might not have time to update everyday after classes start, so if you intend to continue coming to my blog, by all means I would love that. If you will stop coming because I can't update everyday, then I wish you farewell in advance, my friends. But don't worry, if something interesting happens, you will surely hear about it and I most probably will update every second day to every third day anyway.

As the USC Slogan goes: Fight on!

Filed In: [ | classes | USC | ]

Moved and Settled (Somewhat)

So here I am back again. The delay between posting was mainly due to the fact that, USC Residental Network was not available to me since of class registration issues and stuff. Then it takes 2 days after you register your classes for you to use the residential network. One thing I would like to say is, the wait was worth it. The net at USC is blazingly fast compared to the one I had at WMU. To put things into prespective for you guys, I downloaded at peaks of 700kb/sec at WMU. Do the math.

The apartment was pretty much ok once I moved in. Minor problems that are in every apartment cropped up. The carpet was messy, so got that cleaned up. Other assorted things were broken and/or missing. Had them repaired/replaced. All in all a quaint living place right in the heart of Los Angeles, about 10 minutes away from the USC campus, in downtown LA.

Now onto the roommates. One of my roommates is from China and the other is an American. The Chinese roommate is doing his Masters in Civil Engineering while my American roommate is doing his Masters in Synthesis Engineering. Me and my brother are in one bedroom and those two in the other.

Filed In: [ | apartment | LA | USC | roommates | ]

King Kong and Random Stuff

Been busy as usual over here in Los Angeles. It was raining here for the last 2 days and today it was nice and sunny LA weather. Went out and saw King Kong today. I must say, this has got to be one of my favorite films of all time now. It makes you cry, smile, jump with joy and shreik with terror all in the same movie. If you haven't yet watched King Kong, do yourself a favor and go watch it. Trust me, you will love you did.

My glasses are giving me random problems which I wont go into the details here. I need to go to an optimeterist tomorrow and sort em out. Hopefully its nothing serious and can be resolved pretty straightforwardly and easily.

Tomorrow International Student Orientation starts at USC. The checkin time is 7:30 AM. Now when I read that time, I was like, whaaa... Well 7:30 onwards is what it meant and I think, I will run down there to check myself in around 8:15ish. Hopefully, I can find some time in between to run to the optimetrist...

Stay tuned.

Filed In: [ | King | Kong | USC | orientation | ]

Happy New Year + Travel Tales and Other Assorted Conveys

First of all, before I start my rambling, let me wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope you all have this year as the year you get some of your wishes. Hope its a happy year for all of you as well. For me, it will be a tough year, I already know that. It is an year where I start out on a very tough note and I have a lot to prove, not to a lot of people connected with me, somehow or the other, but to myself as well. Let us hope I am successful and so are all of you.

So I finally am in LA. In the hotel room right now and finally got my net working to post. So where do I start my musings? Lets start with the travel tales then.

Well the travel experience getting here, if you could sum it up in one word, would amount to "sucked". My flight from Chicago to Los Angeles was delayed by 7 hours. So what do you do when your flight is delayed for that long? You buy yourself some snacks, buy yourself a novel and start reading and eating. And that is pretty much what I did. Ofcourse I was fortunate enough to have amicable and social people around me, in the times I wasn't reading, I was conversing with them. Funny and pleasent thing is I met some USC students, waiting for the same flight as mine and that helped. So finally we are told we can board. Great you might say right? Well so did I. Little did I know that, we would have to wait aboard the plane for another one and a half hour so they could de-ice the hunk of metal.

So once I arrive in LA, things work smoothly and I am at the hotel room by midnight, WAY past when I shoulda originally arrived. Ah well, I arrived here in one piece and safe and sound, so I should sound thankful and indeed I am.

On the end note, Thankyou to all of you who still remembered me in my absence and gave me New Year Wishes. It brightened up my day coming on after a bit and seeing so many New Year messages. Thankyou.

Filed In: [ | new | year | LA | USC | apartment | travel | ]

The Eternal Battle Between Good and Evil

Good vs. Evil. The boundries might have blurred but yet the battle rages on. Not only on earth but also in each of us. I am not going to categorize what is good and what is evil in this battle on earth. I am going to talk about the battle that rages in all of us. The everpresent, tussle and tug-o-war, that causes us to rethink some of our actions. Some have it easier than others. In some good has made significant conquests and gained much ground, bringing evil to a crushing defeat, albeit not total destruction, since destruction of evil in us, is not possible for we are flawed human beings in our inherent nature. In others, evil has taken such a hold, that even the rays of good are blocked out by perpetual and utter darkness. Most of us have it harder though, with good and evil headbutting, making and losing ground each day. Who will win? Perhaps neither. But will we take an active part in the fight or will we only silently spectate and let fate takes its course? But you can change fate and as such we can take a side in this battle within us. What side will you choose? Will you choose good or will you choose evil. It all depends on you. Not taking the side of good and making an effort for its cause, will automatically side you with evil. In our religion and in many others, non-chalence and non-commital to good, is surrendering to evil... Because, my fellow warriors, there is no neutrality in this battle. Choose your destiny, pick up the weapons of your consciousness, belief and character, and fight on. You will find me in the camp marked "good", for I have chosen a side consciously today, and from there, if you choose the same, we shall fight this battle together and give it, at least in ourselves, some semblence of conclusion.


New Years Resolution No. 1 concluded.


P.S: I am flying to LA tomorrow and from then on, I do not know if I will have net access at my hotel room there. So will see whats up down there and update if things work out. Otherwise wait till I get settled and all :).

Filed In: [ | good | evil | character | battle | ]

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah - I Salute Thee

I wanted to reread about the life of the Quaid again and reaffirm my being a Pakistani. Therefore me and my brother found a few articles concerning the great man. Here, I share with you, some of the quotes from people who knew the Quaid one way or another and had the honour of meeting.

* "Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three." - Stanley Wolpert on Jinnah.

* "There is no man or woman living who imputes anything against his honour or honesty. He was the most upright person, I knew." - The last chief justice of India Lord Patrick Spencer.

* "Gandhi died by the hands of an assassin; Jinnah died by his devotion to Pakistan." - Lord Pethick Lawrence, the former Secretary of State for India.

* "Contributed more than any other man to Pakistan's survival." - Richard Symons.

* "The greatest man I ever met." - The Agha Khan.

* "The most important man in Asia." - Beverley Nichols, the author of `Verdict on India'.

* "An outstanding figure of this century not only in India, but in the whole world." - Dr. Kailashnath Katju, the West Bengal Governor in 1948.

* "One of the greatest leaders in the Muslim world." - Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League.

* The Grand Mufti of Palestine considered his death as a "great loss" to the entire world of Islam.

* "Mr Jinnah, was great as a lawyer, once great as a Congressman, great as a leader of Muslims, great as a world politician and diplomat, and greatest of all as a man of action, By Mr. Jinnah's passing away, the world has lost one of the greatest statesmen and Pakistan its life-giver, philosopher and guide." - Surat Chandra Bose, leader of the Forward Bloc wing of the Indian National Congress.

* "Quaid-i-Azam was the originator of the dream that became Pakistan, architect of the State and father of the world's largest Muslim Nation. Mr Jinnah was the recipient of a devotion and loyalty seldom accorded to any man." - President Harry S. Truman of USA.

Quaid-e-Azam on his last message to the nation, on 14 August, 1948, said, "The foundations of your State have been laid and it is now for you to build and build as quickly and as well as you can".

Alas we failed our Quaid miserably in the years that ensued. I hope we can still learn and come to grips with our destiny and realize his dreams. InshAllah.
Pakistan Zinabad. Pakistan Paindabad.

Filed In: [ | jinnah | pakistan | independence | ]