Small Tutorial on Torrents

Torrent (or BitTorrent) technology is arguably the best; if you need anything ranging from games to movies to songs, you can download through very easy and simple steps. If you are new to it, here's how easy it is:

• Download a torrent downloader software. I find uTorrent quite easy and feature rich
• Goto a torrent site. I usually access isohunt
• Search for anything you want to download, click on download and it'll open up uTorrent automatically
• Save it to your desired destination path

Just ensure you get the torrent with right language version from the website.

As for uTorrent, it also has features like controlling bandwidth (upload and download both) plus scheduler mode as well, using which you can easily turn it off during various timings, if you require more bandwidth for web browsing or other applications.

Chatroulette

Chatroulette is a website that pairs random strangers from around the world together for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website randomly begin an online chat (video, audio and text) with another visitor. At any point, either user may leave the current chat by initiating another random connection.

The Chatroulette website was created by a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow.

The website uses Adobe Flash to display video and access the user's webcam. Flash's peer-to-peer network capabilities (via RTMFP) allow almost all video and audio streams to travel directly between user computers, without using server bandwidth. However, certain combinations of routers will not allow UDP traffic to flow between them, and then it is necessary to fall back to RTMP.

However, one has to be beware of controversial content while accessing the site, as there're multiple possibilities of the same.

Trip to Malaysia

It was June 2009 and I was wondering which place to plan for our honeymoon. I could name a score of people who recommended Malaysia as the ideal place for the trip, especially within the budget.

I started off with visiting the websites hosting the places to visit in Malaysia and finding out the hotel rates. Finally, I was able to create a list of billable items and to define my budget and then finalizing the package with my travel agent. We decided to visit Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi & Genting Highlands, whereas dropped Penang and Borneo from our list.

We set off towards the airport during early August for the flight at 11:59 pm for Malaysian Airlines which travels on Thursdays and Mondays only (Karachi-KL or vice versa). From Karachi to Kuala Lumpur is a 6 hour flight and we had our connecting flight towards Langkawi after a short stay at the KL airport.

Once we reached the KL airport we observed a lot of greenery outside the airport, which reminded me of the greenery which Islamabad has, where greenery just needs a reason to grow. After a short stay, we got onto the 1-hour flight for Langkawi. As soon as we reached above Langkawi we noticed the exciting landscape and the shores.

As soon as we landed, we headed towards the taxi stand and reached our hotel in the Pantai Tengah area. Apart from the sandy beaches in Langkawi, which is a nice relaxing way to spend your time, there are a few places worth visiting:

• Underwater World (Aquarium)
  
• Crocodile Farm (Lots of crocodiles)
  
• Eagle Square (a monument representing Langkawi)
  
• Mangroove Forest (resembling Amazon river)
  
• Cable Car (reaches a good height with a suspension bridge between two mountains)
  
• Seven-Wells Waterfalls (very refreshing)
  

After Langkawi, we headed towards the heights of Genting Highlands, which is approx. one and half hour drive from KL. It's a good place with indoor and outdoor theme parks. The indoor theme park is located inside the First World Hotel, the ground floor of which is a city in itself. The outdoor theme park has medium scale thrill rides along with children rides. The overall atmosphere has an aesthetic value as the clouds cover the park almost all of the time, with rains after irregular intervals.

After spending a couple of days, we headed back towards Kuala Lumpur. It's a highly developed city with good transport infrastructure such as hop-on/hop-off tourist bus service, monorail, KL Express (train service to and from airport), etc. The hop-on/hop-off bus service is a good way to visit all the tourist places with a pass for full day. One can hop off the bus to a tourist destination, spend and enjoy some time and get hop back on the next bus. Few of the places we visited or intended to visit are:

• KL tower ( is one of the tallest communicatons tower in the world) with binoculars on the top
  
• Petronas Twin Tower (skywalking on the bridge between the twin towers). There's a science section inside plus an Aquarium as well
  
• Zoo Negara
• Bird Park & Butterfly Park
• Shopping Malls

The information is readily available on different websites as well as the brochures in the hotels and at the airports which help you to plan your trip. Malaysia has all the aspects of a tourism place within the budget and is surely a place which is highly recommended. Although, Thailand has much better entertainment options, but the overall environment of Malaysia is best suited for honeymooners.

Furniture in Karachi

Whether you're going to build up a new home or you need to upgrade your current one, you'll find it hard to get great furniture. People like us who work throughout the week and find time only on the weekends during the daytime, find it hard to know where to go and have very little time for exploration. I have been trying to search for good furniture shops on the internet, the locations and the quality for each vendor, but one way or the other have hard time in locating one and finding quality within budget.

While the quality of furniture in the famous Furniture Markets (Nursery & near Garden) is controversial :), established brands seem a better choice if your budget is above average.

I, for one, didn't even know the names of the places where we can buy good furniture. While the search is still on, here goes my evaluation so far:

• International Interior Designers & Furniture (Tipu Sultan Road)
  Bedroom Furniture. Is very expensive but Teak wood variety is present which is termite-proof). Takes around 2-3 months to delivery based on the quantity.
  Sofa sets and other furniture is also available, not too sure about Kitchen.
  
• Sam Abbas Design Studio (Tuaheed Commercial, DHA, near Gelato Affair/Biryani Center)
  Mainly Sofa sets, is expensive but affordable to people who desire better furniture. Mostly Sheesham
  
• Interwood (Tuaheed Commerical, DHA, besides Mosaajees)
  Kitchens are great but very expensive. Other furniture also available in good ranges
  
• KalamKaar (near Schon Circle, Clifton)
  Bedroom, Sofa Sets & other furniture is available, but again not cheap, but affordable prices. They dealt with us in a very nice manner and the catalogue is very rich.
  
• Habitt (Tipu Sultan & somewhere in Gulshan as well)
  Generally everything is available on less expensive side as compared to the branding. I was not comfortable about the quality of some of the items e.g. the wood being used is not that durable.

I am still short of all the furniture except for the bedroom and looking for options, mainly for affordable Kitchen building and will be visiting Ashrays, ST (or Estee?) and Dreams in DHA area. There's one other shop by the name of Prestige Kitchens which I plan to explore as well.

Once I am over with the whole deal, I'll write on the summarized analysis of the same so that buyers have consolidated knowledge in one place.

Efficient or Impatient?

“Pomp, Pomp”, a sound which is usually heard from behind while I am sitting in my car waiting for the signal to turn green. This is pretty common in Karachi, the mass-operative city; though very rare in Islamabad, the so-called dead city. This is not the only noise which is disturbing; one can see many vehicles breaking signals; coming from wrong side of the road; and changing lanes quite drastically.

One can easily say that this trend of traffic is due to the fact that people don’t have enough time and they value it too much that they can even risk their own lives for it. But, quite interestingly the trend is almost 180 degrees when you enter a shop, office, governmental department or any other operational place where time actually matters. There, one can clearly observe wastage of time in gossiping, slowness of activity and simply sleeping; though these are not limited as you can find lots of other time-wasting activities and discussions going on which are simply useless and which is not what our country needs.

Most commonly discussed areas are cricket, politics and religion; which can be termed as healthy discussions if you see it from a higher level. But, my experience after being parts of such discussions (for the sake of knowledge) , was disappointing as I found these as just blames and complaints to those who are simply not hearing us. In addition, nothing can be done about it, as opposed to the workplace where one has some authority and can do something constructive.

Some people might believe that these are past-times for people and can be treated equivalent to sports or any other leisure activity; as for some people things like gossiping are recreational. To some extent, this can be agreed upon, but not wholly as people sacrifice their work for the sake of such activities whereas they’re not ready to sacrifice their time for the sake of safety for travelers.

What good is the impatience normally taken as efficiency which saves you just 2 minutes with lots of risk and tension; as compared to the hours of time-wastage coming under inefficiency but assumed as pride by many?

Comments are welcome related to the usage of semicolon

Life is what it's meant to be..

There's this uncomfortable feeling since a very long time now. No it's not that I am not busy in things, infact I am very very busy lately. But somehow, everything seems like nonsense. No, it's not that I'm depressed, just that life doesn't seem to make sense. Maybe I am not good at accepting limits.

Let's talk about depression for a moment and move ahead. I think it cannot be stopped, but can be dealt with, and the best way to deal with it is to expect nothing out of anything. For me, the definition of depression is that things are not going along the lines as expected and you are helpless and this results in depression, hence it can be termed as a symptom that something is wrong and you are unable to fix it, hence helplessness.

After all life has its own turns and tricks and one can only accept these and understand why things happen. I have lost all the interest in life almost 5 years back, maybe because something happened and that unveiled life altogether and since then things have been revealed for me gradually. At this point in time, I think I have understood some of the basics and to cut a long story short it's nothing but observation. You observe life and understand it. But then, I think you can change it to some extent, but again everything could be pre-written and you're just discovering it.

I think I have found how to remain calm, just by accepting that it's just learning and by the end of it, you'd have learnt everything required. We might think that we can change everything, but how can one tell that the change you brought in wasn't written? Once you understand what life is, it doesn't matter how much challenges come to you or how much you are tested, it's just a matter of time and will pass by. For many, life can be wonderful and operational things matter, but really the concept seems to be different and then there's no interest in it and then it doesn't matter what happens and you feel nothing.

Life is as it's meant to be and for me somehow it doesn't make sense at all. Maybe my standards are very high and that's why I have kept aside my feelings altogether and I want nothing for myself and just prioritize what others want and try to achieve those. Some might call this foolishness that I'm not selfish at all, but I have developed into this gradually.

After all, are there any other options?

Praying for alternate paths?

Often times a situation comes into somebody's life where prayers are the only hope towards achieving something important in the world. When nothing else seems to work, praying seems to be the last resort.

The concept of praying becomes very ambiguous at times, specially when you have strong belief that things will go on as written in fate or if one believes the saying "what is written will happen". To me, this is somewhat conflicting at times: What'll happen is already written, then why pray? Will prayers lead to alternate paths in life? e.g. if I had to attain a degree and this is written as my fate then whether I work hard and get it with flying colours or I don't work hard and get it for the sake of just getting it, I'll get it.

If I were to do something and its quality depends upon my effort and concentration, then what role does prayer play? Or to be exact of the conflict I am in right now, what if I am not certain of getting something I really want, do the prayers play any role?

It's not certain that: "If you pray for something it's just a matter of time that you'll get it" because of the reason that it might be good for you but not for everyone. Again this is logic and my question still remains the same: What do prayers do?

If we limit this discussion to the result of the prayers as: "I will get it or not" rather than "I will surely get it, but I pray that I get it with lesser obstacles", etc. If we are to think upon whether prayers really make it happen or not, we can come up with the following combinations, after praying:

• You get it IF you pray, not otherwise
• You get it regardless of praying
• You don't get it regardless of praying

The last two combinations are solely based upon logic and prayers don't work. Let's talk about the first one, can this be true? If yes, then this statement: "Whatever happens, happens for the best" becomes false. And if this becomes false, then the alternate path which occurs after human praying is better than the original path. This implies that human path construction is better and leads to a weird state of mind.

Coming back to the last 2 points above and assuming that our last paragraph is just false, then we arrive to a conclusion that praying does nothing. Again, a weird state of mind.

All these questions can be answered if we think of this:

• This world and its events are based upon humans, but God's intervention is there whenever required. Requirement is posted through praying.
• There's no such thing as fate, everything is done by humans, except for maybe a few things such as birth & death? Maybe a few more?