Today I thought id post the picture of my cat, Casper. He is not with me and is with my parents back home. This is a picture my dad took while Casper was yawning and really sleepy. It might look he is hungry and about to attack but heh that would be wrong.
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Lovely little critter
Today I thought id post the picture of my cat, Casper. He is not with me and is with my parents back home. This is a picture my dad took while Casper was yawning and really sleepy. It might look he is hungry and about to attack but heh that would be wrong.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Belated Update
Things have been hectic and theya re going to become more hectic and gung ho as it is the end of the semester and everyone is scrambling to meet deadline dates and get prepared for exams. I still have to do a lot of my assingments including the Parser assignment and the PERL assignment.
On the home front, there is still no news about the VISA for my parents. Let us hope they get it and get to see me after about 2 years. I will be going tomorrow and reserving my seats for the graduation ceremony regardless my parents come or not.
From now on I plan to update regularly. It has been a hectic week but I started this blog and now it is my duty to keep it updated :D.
On the home front, there is still no news about the VISA for my parents. Let us hope they get it and get to see me after about 2 years. I will be going tomorrow and reserving my seats for the graduation ceremony regardless my parents come or not.
From now on I plan to update regularly. It has been a hectic week but I started this blog and now it is my duty to keep it updated :D.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Happy Eid Mubarak
Eid Mubarak to all muslims around the world on this festive ocassion. May you have many more and have lots of merriment and all that good stuff :D. For me, im going to the Junoon Concert on Monday the 15th :D. It will be one hell of a blast. I've never been to a good concert before from a good band. This one will be my first.
On the apartment front I have been allowed to wait until December 1st for a decision on whether i want to stay in my current apartment for the next semester or not. The reason being my parents having no idea about their VISA status and me not sure of getting an OPT. I will find out hopefully between Nov 24 - Dec 1 if I am getting an OPT.
Pakistan won the Jubilee Celebration match against India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata today. Masterful run chase and great composure of the Pakistani batsmen. Salman Butt was amazing at just 20 years of age. Showed a lot of maturity and good temprament in his unbeaten 107. Kudos and congratulations to the Pakistani team and to India good luck in getting their form back. It was a hard fought match fitting for the Jubilee celebrations.
On the apartment front I have been allowed to wait until December 1st for a decision on whether i want to stay in my current apartment for the next semester or not. The reason being my parents having no idea about their VISA status and me not sure of getting an OPT. I will find out hopefully between Nov 24 - Dec 1 if I am getting an OPT.
Pakistan won the Jubilee Celebration match against India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata today. Masterful run chase and great composure of the Pakistani batsmen. Salman Butt was amazing at just 20 years of age. Showed a lot of maturity and good temprament in his unbeaten 107. Kudos and congratulations to the Pakistani team and to India good luck in getting their form back. It was a hard fought match fitting for the Jubilee celebrations.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Getting things done.
As it happens, life seems to go by and things get done somehow. I decided to stay in my current apartment on Campus with the option to transfer my lease from this apartment to another 2 bedroom apartment should my parents arrive. I still have to ask what if I dont get my OPT and the assurance of a two bedroom apartment. With that out of the way things will become a little less complicated and stressful for me in the coming days. All in good time as well, since I crunch month is coming up. Almost the end of semester and a lot of work to do.
Why is it that all teachers remember to increase the speed during the later days of the term? I got 3 assingments in the space of a week to do. Wonderful isn't it?
Non-Technical People are welcome to ask me what the things I will speak of now below mean.
The first one is from my Programming Languages class. I have to make a parser which will parse in both top down and bottom up parsing. An external program like Prolog will make the decision based on whether the grammer is complex enough to do a bottom up parse or simple enough to do a top down one. It will tell this to the actual parser.
The second assingment is also for the Programming Lanugages class where I have to first learn PERL and then design a SQL/PERL interface and database program.
One a side note: Firefox 1.0 was released on Nov 9th. It is one hell of a program and has finally been released. It is much better than Internet Explorer. For those of you who have never tried it, give it a try. It is faster and more secure.
Why is it that all teachers remember to increase the speed during the later days of the term? I got 3 assingments in the space of a week to do. Wonderful isn't it?
Non-Technical People are welcome to ask me what the things I will speak of now below mean.
The first one is from my Programming Languages class. I have to make a parser which will parse in both top down and bottom up parsing. An external program like Prolog will make the decision based on whether the grammer is complex enough to do a bottom up parse or simple enough to do a top down one. It will tell this to the actual parser.
The second assingment is also for the Programming Lanugages class where I have to first learn PERL and then design a SQL/PERL interface and database program.
One a side note: Firefox 1.0 was released on Nov 9th. It is one hell of a program and has finally been released. It is much better than Internet Explorer. For those of you who have never tried it, give it a try. It is faster and more secure.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
In the state of Limbo
So finally I was to find out about my Parent's getting a visa today and found out that they will get a reponse soon. They still havent gotten a response. I hope they get one soon so I can start looking for a definate plan on where i want to stay. Other than that everything is going A OK. I have finalized my Application for OPT, concluded almost all of my given assingments. Need to catch up on my sleep though. That is about it for today.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
AH belated updated
Ah sorry to all the people that come here looking for an update and dont find any. I have been really busy witha lot of stuff recently and totally didnt get time to post.
All is well. I am going to apply for my OPT on monday so I can stay in the US for another year after I graduate. I have been busy doing my assignments and stuff. I have still to decide on where i want to live and if I sign my lease or not. That depends on if my parents get a visa or not. Lets see.
Apart from that nothing much is happening. Will update more regularly now :)
All is well. I am going to apply for my OPT on monday so I can stay in the US for another year after I graduate. I have been busy doing my assignments and stuff. I have still to decide on where i want to live and if I sign my lease or not. That depends on if my parents get a visa or not. Lets see.
Apart from that nothing much is happening. Will update more regularly now :)
Monday, November 01, 2004
More assignments and school stuff
The assignment is proving to be a real challenge. I have been trying for the last 12 hours trying to figure it out. Hopefully, I will be able to make some sense out of it. Other than that, I didn't do much of anything else today. No University replied as of yet to my questions about admission. I called up a few Apartments and talked to landlords but it is increasingly becoming clear to me that I might have to get one in my current apartment complex in a 2 bedroom configurations so that my parents can have a place to stay when they come here.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Pressure week starts tomorrow
I finally got the ethics and Digital Rights Management (DRM) Assignment done. I personally think DRM's are a restriction on the rights of a customer and should be shot down. That isn't only my opinion by many people, including the founder of the GNU program and the head of Autodesk think along the same lines.
I also sent out emails regarding questions about CS Masters programs to University of Southern California (USC), Texas A&M (TAMU), Arizona State University (ASU) and Purdue. Hopefully I will get some responses by late Monday.
I also sent out emails regarding questions about CS Masters programs to University of Southern California (USC), Texas A&M (TAMU), Arizona State University (ASU) and Purdue. Hopefully I will get some responses by late Monday.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Assignments and more Assignments
Tired.. loaded with two more assingments and the old ones are still not complete.. Hopefully I will be able to do them satisfactorily. The one thing that makes it even harder is my perfectionist nature. Even after i'm done making something, I keep adding more stuff and making it neater. My programming languages assignment is proving a good challenge. Went to the lab for a group study session and got a good idea of what I have to do now.
I got my passport back from renewal and now I have to apply for my OPT so I can find a job in the US after I graduate, which reminds me: I still have a lot of emails to write to different Universities. and apply for my TOEFL test. I still don't get why Universities would ask to get my TOEFL when I graduated from a U.S University. I guess some schools are like that.
I still have to go search for a new apartment.. On Monday, that is my priority. The deadline for my lease is fast running out. Time to move into a cheaper apartment.
Hope you guys in the Saturday-Sunday day layout are having a good weekend and those in the Thursday-Friday system had a good weekend. Good luck and take care.
I got my passport back from renewal and now I have to apply for my OPT so I can find a job in the US after I graduate, which reminds me: I still have a lot of emails to write to different Universities. and apply for my TOEFL test. I still don't get why Universities would ask to get my TOEFL when I graduated from a U.S University. I guess some schools are like that.
I still have to go search for a new apartment.. On Monday, that is my priority. The deadline for my lease is fast running out. Time to move into a cheaper apartment.
Hope you guys in the Saturday-Sunday day layout are having a good weekend and those in the Thursday-Friday system had a good weekend. Good luck and take care.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Admission duties and Apartment Searches
OK, now as the day of my graduation comes closer and closer, I have to start filling out application forms and start contacting universities about admission stuff. Good Stuff !!! Finally one part of your life ends and another starts. I will just be glad to be accepted into a school of my choice, finish my degree in 1 year tops and then work. Been in school for far too long. It is time to start earning dough.. just one more year...
Another thing on my mind these days is finding an apartment which is cheaper than the one I am in currently. Since I reside in an apartment on campus, I will have to vacate this one soon due to my official graduation. Got to make some calls to potential landlords and check leasing information about them. I have some good ones in mind. One of them even has a pool and tennis courts attached.. hmm fun !.
Finished reading Richard Knaak's Day of the Dragon. Thourougly enjoyed it. A good book. Takes a little time to draw you in, but once it has, it is a true blast. I will start on the second book in the trilogy soon, which brings me to the subject of my second assignment for my CS 485 Programming Languages class.
It dawned on me that the parser wont be as simple as I had first thought it to be. Reading from a simple text file, not encoded in PROLOG is a pain. I will have to figure someething out.
Another thing on my mind these days is finding an apartment which is cheaper than the one I am in currently. Since I reside in an apartment on campus, I will have to vacate this one soon due to my official graduation. Got to make some calls to potential landlords and check leasing information about them. I have some good ones in mind. One of them even has a pool and tennis courts attached.. hmm fun !.
Finished reading Richard Knaak's Day of the Dragon. Thourougly enjoyed it. A good book. Takes a little time to draw you in, but once it has, it is a true blast. I will start on the second book in the trilogy soon, which brings me to the subject of my second assignment for my CS 485 Programming Languages class.
It dawned on me that the parser wont be as simple as I had first thought it to be. Reading from a simple text file, not encoded in PROLOG is a pain. I will have to figure someething out.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
World of Warcraft Closed Beta Ends!
World of Warcraft Community Site:
Finally!!!. It is close to being a reality. Soon Open Beta will start and then we will get to play World of Warcraft. Great news for all those of us who could not be in the closed beta and a little sad for those who got their characters all beefed up to level 60 in the closed beta since they most probably will be wiped for launch.
The closed beta test is coming to an end. This Friday, October 29, at 3:00 PM PDT, the closed beta servers will go offline as we prepare to run another stress test. All active closed-beta accounts will remain active, and closed-beta testers will be receiving an email with instructions on what to do to continue playing in the stress test.
Finally!!!. It is close to being a reality. Soon Open Beta will start and then we will get to play World of Warcraft. Great news for all those of us who could not be in the closed beta and a little sad for those who got their characters all beefed up to level 60 in the closed beta since they most probably will be wiped for launch.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Software Development Online: November 2004
Software
Development Online: November 2004
According to the software development magazine, IT jobs in the US are gaining on the salary curve. You can read more about the information at the website. It is the result of Software Development magazine's 7th Annual Salary Survey. The downside is that there are still very few women in Computing.
Development Online: November 2004
According to the software development magazine, IT jobs in the US are gaining on the salary curve. You can read more about the information at the website. It is the result of Software Development magazine's 7th Annual Salary Survey. The downside is that there are still very few women in Computing.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Assignments and Other Oddities
Got another assignment to do for my Programming Languages class. I have to make a LISP parser in Prolog. Shouldn't be that hard. At the most a work that should take me about 4 hours. Still have to brush up on that Prolog knowledge.
Added a currently reading and learning thing on the side to add spice to the page and let visitors know what I am upto.
Went to class today only to find that there was none. I hate it when teachers dont tell you by email or some other means that there is no email and that class is your only class for the day, you ride a shuttle to class, waiting 15 minutes at the bus stand and find out that there is no class :|. Oh well, allowed me to get some well needed social time in with a classfellow :D.
Added a currently reading and learning thing on the side to add spice to the page and let visitors know what I am upto.
Went to class today only to find that there was none. I hate it when teachers dont tell you by email or some other means that there is no email and that class is your only class for the day, you ride a shuttle to class, waiting 15 minutes at the bus stand and find out that there is no class :|. Oh well, allowed me to get some well needed social time in with a classfellow :D.
Monday, October 25, 2004
World Of Warcraft - Nov 22nd Release Date
GAME BITS: 'World of Warcraft' to debut week of Nov. 22: "BY HEATHER NEWMAN
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST"
For those of you who do not know, World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). It is played over the internet and a monthly fee is associated with it. WoW has been in development for 3+ years and a lot of fans (including your host, me) have been anxiously awaiting its arrival. Blizzard have been skeptical giving a firm date because they have been known to make games that are quality and breakthrough products, no matter how long it takes.
Could this finally be? Certinaly Blizzard downplayed the news and even started deleting and closing threads related to this news. But if the publisher and the author of this article is to believed, WoW is coming. I can see why Blizzard is hesitant to give this news their support since, I believe, Vivendi Universal (VU), the publisher for WoW, is pushing Blizzard to release WoW. Everquest 2 (EQ2) is being released on Nov 8th and I think that is why VU wants Blizzard to release WoW soon after so it doesnt lose the chance to score some big fans.
Let's hope Blizzard don't cave into the VU's pressure and release a quality product.
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST"
For those of you who do not know, World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). It is played over the internet and a monthly fee is associated with it. WoW has been in development for 3+ years and a lot of fans (including your host, me) have been anxiously awaiting its arrival. Blizzard have been skeptical giving a firm date because they have been known to make games that are quality and breakthrough products, no matter how long it takes.
Could this finally be? Certinaly Blizzard downplayed the news and even started deleting and closing threads related to this news. But if the publisher and the author of this article is to believed, WoW is coming. I can see why Blizzard is hesitant to give this news their support since, I believe, Vivendi Universal (VU), the publisher for WoW, is pushing Blizzard to release WoW. Everquest 2 (EQ2) is being released on Nov 8th and I think that is why VU wants Blizzard to release WoW soon after so it doesnt lose the chance to score some big fans.
Let's hope Blizzard don't cave into the VU's pressure and release a quality product.
Corrections to Layout
Ok this morning I woke up and tried to look at my Blog in Internet Explorer (IE) since I normally use Firefox and saw it horribly mismatched so I had to redo the code and it should be fixed now. I tested on Firefox and IE 6.0 and it seemed to be the same on both. Also now the webpage should show properly for any screen resolution.
If any of you find any irregularities please leave a comment. I would appreciate it.
If any of you find any irregularities please leave a comment. I would appreciate it.
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