Busy bee..

Not been able to write anything for the past few weeks, have been pretty busy at office. Working on this new gaming project, which will be built upon C++/OpenGL, seems like a dream coming true, inshaAllah. Might be the team lead for this project which is right now in its initial phases such as requirements analysis, resource hiring, technical research, etc. While hunting for resources I have found that it's pretty hard to get "all-in-one" resources, but fortunately we've found a few bright people matching almost the criteria set by us. Let's see how things work out.

Also went to Karachi last week, enjoyed every bit of it and stayed for 3 days, again seeing how time flies. Have been playing snooker and table tennis and that's all the activity after office apart from sleeping and relaxing.

A friend recommended this link http://del.icio.us Have a look.

I am aiming to write a lot of technical stuff on the technical blog, but still finding hard to get some time out. As far as general posts are concerned, I am looking forward to write the next part about Spiders plus something about dealing with people.

Controlled Outlaw

It's time to become an outlaw, to do whatever you like, not constrained by anything, not even laws or policies. The pleasure in breaking all the laws and nonconformity to the policies of the surroundings is awesome. Liberty, strength & control are the necessary ingredients. If you have these, why not do it? Yes, just do it..do it!

Man, it sure feels good to stand out completely for yourself and do what feels right to you and ignoring what others have to say about right and wrong. It's fun when you look at the astonished faces of other people, the expressions out of disbelief, surprise and somewhat envy. Just come out of the phase of dependency on others and being weak, invert the thoughts by becoming strong and making others dependent on you, you'll surely enjoy the benefits.

The people won't like you for that, but only those people who are the victims of you becoming an outlaw, but again it's for your ownself, you have to become a bit selfish for this, and you have to be mentally tough and need to have backup to take such an amount of risk. Once you have the entire skills and resources, then there's no harm in taking this risk and experiencing this phase, but in a controlled manner. Of course, somethings are wrong and shouldn't be targetted, here's where maturity comes into play.

This is what's going on in my mind these days, I am breaking many policies within the company I am working at and am really enjoying this phase, but I have set the limits first!

-Gunda Gard v3.0 ;-)

As architectural as a spider

There are a lot of things in this world, which can be interesting for people who like to give a thought on these and are in search of inspiration. Set aside the universe, an almost infinite number of God’s creations exist in this world only. One such creation is Spider, which is one of the most fascinating creatures of this world, simply because of its uniqueness of actions and the way it’s designed.

Spider is called Araneae in scientific terms. There are around 38,834 species of this excellent creation categorized into 110 families. A few categories of spiders are Tarantulas, Hunting Spiders, biting spiders, jumping spiders & web-spinning spiders.

I’ll be focusing on the web spinners and the discussion spans across two parts. This part covers the web construction, the material and its quality, and the 2^nd part covers how they hunt their prey and how they defend themselves, which will be posted soon.

Silk & Web
The silk is made of protein, which does not decompose by fungi and bacteria like all other proteins. The reason is that this silk contains three substances that are important for its durability: Pyrolidin, Potassium Hydrogen Phosphate and Potassium Nitrate. We conserve protein by cooking, salting, drying or adding acid so that it remains intact.

The construction of web is one of the most sophisticated natural mechanisms that exist in this world. Although all spiders produce silk but only certain types of spiders build webs. The style of web varies from one species to another. Interestingly, there’s also a connection between eyesight & web construction capabilities of different spiders, which will be discussed in the next part.

This is the internal process, which goes through in a spider while producing silk:

• Spiders have ducts for producing liquid silk, which solidifies on contact with outside air.
• The secretion is drawn into fine threads by structures called spinnerets on the lower side of spider’s abdomen. The spinnerets, which spin the silk, work like the fingers of a hand. A spider can stretch out each spinneret, pull it back in, and even squeeze them all together.

This is the everlastingly interesting high-level view of how the construction is done:

• The most difficult part seems to be the first thread, for which the spider releases a sticky thread that is blown away with the wind, of course if she’s lucky. Simple!
• If the breeze carries the silken line to a spot where it sticks, the first bridge is formed.
• The spider cautiously crosses along the thin line, reinforcing it with a second line.
• She enforces the line until it is strong enough.
• After this she hangs a thread in the form of a Y below the primary thread.
• These are the first three radial of the web. More radials are constructed taking care that the distance between the radial is small enough to cross.
• Then the adhesive spiral thread is placed and the web is ready to be used.

Re-engineering the Web
After a night of hunting the web becomes worn out (destroyed by bad weather and by the flying prey). The spider removes the silk in the morning only leaving the first bridge line. After daytime’s rest the spider constructs a new web in the evening. If the catch was low and the web is not heavily damaged the web may stay during the day and be reused after minor repairing.

A lot of orb weaving spiders even recycle their webs. The weaving of a web takes up a lot of the spider's resources. Since they need to renew their web regularly, they eat the silk. Only the main thread of the web is left intact. The cutting and the digesting of the web are done by special digestive juices that contain enzymes rather than by any mechanical cutting. These juices are also used to connect the strands of silk together. They usually weave a new web in the morning.

Material & Quality of Silk
Some spiders comb their silk to a wooly structure. To do this they have a comb like structure near the fourth legs and an extra silk producing organ just in front of the spinners, which appears as a transparent plate. There is no glue on the threads but the insect gets stuck with the hairs on their body in the silk. The thicker threads in the silk prevent the insect from tearing the silk.

Quite interestingly, the quality of the silk which she produces is an extremely strong material and is on weight basis, stronger than steel. This thread is not only strong but also very elastic. The thread of one of the orb web spider type is very elastic and can be stretched 30 - 40% before it breaks. Steel can be stretched only 8% and nylon around 20%. It has been suggested that a pencil thick strand of silk could stop a Boeing 747 in flight at full speed. Amazing! According to a study, we are still unable to reproduce such a material with all our technological know-how.

Applications of Spider Silk
The silk is utilized by the spider for a lot of different uses, which include constructing their webs, the production of egg sacs, wrapping in their prey, as a life line when jumping (just like spider-man), or dropping to escape, for transferring semen from the abdomen to the male palp, as a shelter in which it can retreat, etc. This silk has been utilized by humans as well e.g. for producing fishing lines, nets for the transportation of arrow points, tobacco and dried poison for the arrow points, cross hair in instruments, etc.

With this, I would like to add another perspective to all this information, that all this is done by a single spider and even much more. A normal human being with some intelligence can easily comprehend what type of intelligence is needed to come up with a design of such level. It’s even hard for a human being to come up with such a perfect design. Hence obviously a spider hasn’t invented itself or induced these capabilities with evolution. It’s simply the perfection of God; the perfect working system advocates that, an inch here and there in a spider can really mess things up.

The Great Wall of Constraints..

It's been a pretty busy month, this March, with some good things happening and some really bad days as well. I am finally getting home at workplace and starting to get as productive as I used to be previously.

Apart from work, there had been a lot of other issues which I had been handling all this month which have kept me too busy to write about things I wanted to e.g. Spiders and about some technical upcomings.

I have always found it pretty hard to keep in line with the constraints we are surrounded by, at least the constraints which have been built up by us, the humans. I feel that we should try to minimize the constraints, atleast find out alternatives and do that until and unless we have control on things and then accept the remaining constraints. But, I have not been able to find alternatives about some constraints and that had hurt me pretty badly in the past. And now, it's hurting someone else as well. But, what can I do? What are the possible options? I believe none.

So, I am better off accepting the constraints and not trying to destroy "The Great Wall of Constraints" because I know I don't have the power to do so. Also, I don't want to hurt some of the constructors of this great wall. But, this is not the end, these will remain forever and there will be other constraints in the upcoming years as well. This is one of the sides of life and we are just better off accepting at every point. There's no use crying over things we can't control, instead we should find "Good" in everything. Easier said than Done!

Oh yes, we had a training on IBM Rational Suite yesterday, it's simply amazing! The suite contains products which covers the phases of SDLC and all of the products are very nicely integrated. I'd be writing about this suite as well in the near future.

Passive Mode..

Have been busy at work these days, really busy. At home, I can't setup my mood to write.

My next post will be covering our trip to Peshawar last weekend, will be writing about that soon, don't know exactly when. Then, I am aiming to write something about "Spiders", but need to complete some research about them. I'll soon be creating a technical blog, on which I'll be posting mainly on Java & Flash technologies and will try to cover the best practices learnt from my experiences.

I'm planning to goto Karachi the coming weekend, really missing it.

I am proud of my Parents

Parents, a blessing from Allah, what would I be if I wouldn't have the parents I have. I didn't realize their vision & approach till I was 16, but since then I have been analyzing all of it, though there had been second thoughts during all of this, but now I am 100% convinced. My love & respect for them is increasing gradually since then. From the very beginning, they have been working hard to bring us up, especially my elder brother and me. They had their own parents as well to take care of.

They had only negligible financial reserves to start with. They had a vision for both of us and they worked really hard to achieve the goals, leaving aside the constraints and personal motivation levels. They had their financial plans, which they have now achieved and all seems smooth, but it isn’t. They got us very good standard schooling and worked everyday consistently to make us better human beings. The amount of sacrifice and the amount of struggle, in terms of time, energy, money & use of intelligence is simply invaluable. One small example of their decision-making ability is that they changed our schools for a better secondary education, keeping in line with their vision. Not only they wanted us to be good at studies, but also in other areas.

From Montessori to Kindergarten (and sometimes during primary & secondary), my mother used to pick my brother and me up from school in a local bus or a rickshaw, depending upon the saving they did in the month. If you add this to the responsibilities of maintaining our home as well as cooking and other daily activities, it's a hell lot of work and pressure. But she made it look all easy.

My father worked harder and harder to make as much money as to raise both of us in the best of his control. He worked hard at his office, as well as at home to teach us, as well as doing work at home, all by himself, yet keeping everything simple.

They got me a new PC (386 dx) when I was in 9th, the price of which was not compatible with our financial position. I had a major accident when I was in 10th, fracturing two of my bones. I had major operations going on, needed a good surgeon. They arranged all of it, again sacrificing their plans financially. I was not a good student at all at that point in time and still they loved me as if I were their best child. They did everything for me during that time, more than what I needed. I still remember the support I had from my father when I was on bed rest for a few months. Add this to raising two other children within financial boundaries, and you'll imagine the pressure, and the energy required.

We also went for annual trips to several countries and I am amazed at how they managed to do that. The education after intermediate was expensive for us, as we were struggling to some extent financially. Yet, they managed it. I saw them shopping, I saw them eating, I saw them saving each & every paisa they can, yet they spent all the money they can on us to make us the best.

And now, I am proud to claim that they have succeeded in all of that, our education, financial stability, home environment, relationship with others & the family reputation, etc. My brother is a Chartered Accountant, working outside the country with one of the world's best companies. I am here in Islamabad, again in one of the better companies in Pakistan, earning a good salary. All the credit goes to our parents and all the sacrifice they had faced for us.

It's human nature that the realization comes with experience and I am sure people have gone through the age where you feel like your parents haven't done anything for you and I am quite sure that, that age is still to come (or may have come already) when one realizes the efforts of one's parents and then an era comes where you are the parent!

The age from 30 to 50 (depending upon the birth of kids) is an age for extreme struggle and careful decision-making and I haven't seen many who have gone through that with success in all areas. There's a lot to do for them, in fact I'll never be able to return fully what they had given me. I must end by saying that praying for them and doing anything they want should be one of our main goals.

Snowy Weekend

Last thursday, I alongwith two friends decided to have a trip to Murree/Bhurban on Saturday/Sunday. We planned to reach Murree on Saturday, stay overnight and return back the next day after doing lunch at PC Bhurban. Murree is around 60 Kms from Islamabad and it usually takes around 1.5 hours to reach.

We left Islamabad at around 12 noon in Tahir's red Daewoo Racer with original Hankook tyres, and quickly reached the snowy mountains which started around 20 Kms before Murree. As we moved ahead, we encountered a huge traffic jam somewhere around 15 Kms before our destination. Kids & even grown-ups came out of their vehicles and started throwing snowballs on each other as well as the slow moving traffic. We were hit a few times as well. There was snow here and there, everywhere.

Finally, after 3 hours, the slow traffic was converted into low traffic and we reached Murree in no time. Mall road was closed down for all sorts of traffic, so we looked out for the first decent hotel in the way. Hence, we checked-in at Murree Tabaash Hotel and quickly turned the heater on and made ourselves comfortable. At around 6 pm, we got out of the room to check out the atmosphere at Mall road.

We reached Popeye after viewing the public around us and had coffee & soup to warm ourselves. We then decided to visit Kashmir Point and enjoy the view. In the way, we got hold of 3 ice spikes and enjoyed eating 'em. Moving forward, we enjoyed the beautiful, yet creepy pathway with snow crystals glowing in the dim light and light clouds surround. The way got more creepy, as there weren't many people going towards our destination, so we decided to take a 180 degrees turn for the sake of our healths. During our return-back to hotel, we had dinner and again enjoyed the beautiful atmosphere around us. We headed back to our hotel at around 10 pm and enjoyed the services of our temporary heater.

Indus Music was the only visible channel from a list of good channels, so we enjoyed it while playing Black Queen. At around 2 am, we decided to sleep and planned the next day. During the night, Amir realized that he'd caught cold because of which his chest was filled with a lot of pain. He couldn't sleep all night and so at around 7 am we decided to drop the plan for Bhurban and get back. But, it was snowing heavily, infact we soon realized that it had been snowing the whole night and it would be very adventurous to drive in that sort of weather. At around 10 am, it was still snowing, but there was little traffic as well. So, we decided to check-out and head back to Islamabad.

While we were leaving, I realized that the atmosphere created by the falling snow was extremely enjoyable. Wind was blowing as well, making the scene more attractive. But, we had to move, move on and head back, head back to home, home having comfort, comfort which we strive for. We left at 10:15 am!

A few tips for people who go on a snowy trip are:

-Driver & car should be excellent & confident, in order to handle the worst of the situations.
-Keep ultra-warm clothes. An extra set of everything is highly recommended.
-Keep a high buffer of time for extreme conditions.
-All the participants should be strong enough to cope up with you.