Rs320 million system for measuring Indus Waterflow fails to function

August 2nd, 2005

Dawn reports that the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) is demanding “design re-engineering” for the system installed to monitor inflows and outflows at dams, costing Rs320 million and 2 years to develop under contract from Siemens of Germany which was rehired for a further 6 months for Rs8.4 million to fix the problem in vain.

Irsa wants nothing to do with the system and wants WAPDA to get the issue resolved under warranty (if the working system is not even delivered yet it should not even be an issue of warranty). The ministry says that WADPA, Nespak (National Engineering Services Pakistan), Siemens and Supernet should see the issue to completion while Irsa and provincial deparments monitor the progress. Appears that eveyrone wants to delegate or transfer responsibility.

Still no relief for ISPs and LDIs from PTC

August 2nd, 2005

Dawn reports two meetings between PTCL, Ministry of IT and industry ISPs have ended without resolution. ISPs and LDIs are demanding $43m compensation for the outages in the form of free internet bandwidth for 40 days. PTCL is only settling on 10 days.

The outage itself was much longer than 10 days. Second, a single days outage simply cannot be compensated by a single day’s worth of free bandwidth since losses from a one-day outage are more far reaching than just the lost bandwidth.

PTCL is still sticking to its guns, saying they are not under any obligation to compensate for the outage. The ISPs, however, may still be liable to their customers who deserve compensation for the outage. The ISPs claim they should recieve 4 days for every free day given to customers since the bandwidth ~25% of the operating costs (others being salaries, rental, collocation, marketing etc).

Is your ISP compensating you? Should ISPs be compensated or should this simply be considered the cost of doing business in Pakistan and taken away from their profit margins as an operating expense?

Plagiarism and Academia

August 2nd, 2005

While plagarism is a problem that plagues all arenas of academia (can be as subtle as overlooking a reference to a source), this particular story concerns the International Islamic University in Islamabad where two (probably graduate) students and a professor are accused of plagiarising a paper by industry security guru Bruce Schneier and colleagues.

While the professor claims only to have appended his name to the paper, I agree with Schneier’s commentary that he is still responsible for lack of due diligence.

In the vast web of information, it’s getting increasingly difficult to track down plagiarism and in a sense, the whole plagiarism business (essays.org etc) is compromising the academic culture and true worth of having a degree.

Further, stories like this bring considerable harm to the reputation of not only the institution in question but also Pakistan educational institutions in general. In my opinion, these students should be made an example of to not only strongly discourage this practise but also to make it clear that the International Islamic University in Islamabad’s integrity is intact.

Plagiarism and shame in the academic Industry

August 2nd, 2005

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist and author. Described by The Economist as a “security guru,” Schneier is best known as a refreshingly candid and lucid security critic and commentator. When people want to know how security really works, they turn to Schneier.

It’s no surprise that Khawaja Amer Hayat, Umar Waqar Anis, and S. Tauseef-ur-Rehman, three professors from the International Islamic University in Islamabad did as well.

More than looking to refer to Bruce, they plagiarized his entire paper on Cryptanalysis of some encryption/cipher schemes using related key attack and published it on SIGCSE, a forum for computer science educators.

Seems like these professors have a stubbed a lot of other academic institutions and taken credit for it. Plagiarism in any form is not kosher and credit must be given for someone elses hard work.

Read Bruce’s rant here which includes seemingly insincere apologies from the three professors.

Microsoft is Recruiting in Pakistan

August 1st, 2005

Microsoft will be recruiting candidates from Pakistan (as of late, an increasing number of candidates are being considered from Pakistan and the number of hires has been growing). From the internal mail.

Soon Microsoft will be interviewing people from Pakistan, including interested and qualified candidates for software development positions here in the USA at our corporate headquarters working on our major products.

If you know of anyone that might be interested, or a bulletin board where it would be appropriate to post this, please forward this email. There are multiple positions open and candidates will be in competition with themselves, not each other.

What is a qualified candidate?
* Someone who has (or will be completing this year) a bachelor’s (four year or more) degree in Computer Science or a related field
* Someone that has very strong abilities to write code in C/C++
* Someone that is very driven and passionate about technology, desiring to make software products that will go all over the world
* Someone with fluent English speaking skills

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT AT MICROSOFT
The reason so many people from various disciplines come to Microsoft is because we provide the most exciting challenges in the industry. Since our inception in 1975, Microsoft’s mission has been to create software for the personal computer that empowers and enriches people in the workplace, at school and at home. Microsoft’s early vision of a computer on every desk and in every home is coupled today with a strong commitment to Internet -related technologies that expand the power and reach of the PC and its users. You can help shape the industry in nearly countless ways, all while gaining invaluable experience. Our casual environment lends itself to freer thinking and therefore, creative problem-solving. However, the coolest part of all is the diversity of jobs. You’re guaranteed not to be bored.

We invite you to join us as we move toward the .NET age, the next generation of our products. You could create a world of change in one of these pivotal, Redmond, Washington USA area positions in the Microsoft product groups. Here is a list of the core positions we will be looking to fill.

Software Design Engineer in Development
Design and implement various new components of the next release of the Windows operating system, Office, Visual Studio, .NET, MSN, SQL Server or other key Microsoft Products. Specific areas of expertise include COM/DCOM, ActiveX, Java, Graphics, Networking, and Base/Kernel. The candidate should have BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics, Physics or Mathematics. Strong C/C++ skills, sound knowledge of operating system fundamentals and server development, and preferably more than 3 years of programming experience.

Software Design Engineer in Test
Design and develop test plans/test suites to test various components of one of our primary products- Windows , Office, Visual Studio, .NET, etc. Work closely with the developers and other test team members to isolate and resolve problems. The candidate should have BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics, Physics or Mathematics. Strong C/C++ skills, sound knowledge of operating system fundamentals and server development and preferably more than 3 years of programming experience.

There are multiple positions open, so please share the information with someone as good as you are.

All positions are at our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, USA. We do require functional level English language skills, written and spoken.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer.

If you are interested, reply on this site.

Fixed line to mobile phone charges to be reduced

July 31st, 2005

The Daily Times reports that PTCL has announced a 25% reduction on fixed-to-mobile line tariffs from August 1st 2005. This reduces per call charges from Rs2.8 to Rs2.12 per call. PTA (the Daily Times site has this wrong) Chairman Shahzada Alam also revealed future PTCL directions: fixed to mobile charges might be further reduced by 25% next year and PTCL has been issued directives to change the existing system from per minute billing to per second billing.

Firms Plan Landmark India-Pakistan Business Deal

July 28th, 2005

The Washington Post reports, India’s biggest software exporter plans to open a training center in Pakistan this fall, venturing across a heavily guarded border to launch the first formal joint venture between major companies from the rival nations.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., part of India’s Tata conglomerate, seeks to team up with Pakistan-based Techlogix Inc. to offer software engineering courses for technology workers in Lahore. Tata officials say that they hope to eventually create a software development facility in Pakistan and that the training center will help ease the company into the market.

Read the rest at the website.

Utility Payment Kiosks

July 27th, 2005

NADRA has started allowing consumers to pay their bills electronically with the aid of computerized kiosk’s. the Jang reports.

The KIOSK machines installation process would be completed by the end of August 2005. Nadra, in initial phase, is considering installing around 25-40 KIOSK machines in Karachi only.

That’s where the problem lies. They have moved the entire nation to these computerized NIC’s and have them registered to their systems, and they expect to handle a city of 15 million people with just 40 kiosk’s? And let me guess, they’re built on a pirated windows platform as well. The article proudle boasts that the machines can handle over 300 users in a 24 hour period.

No user will ever be paying their bills at 2 in the morning. I can still see the four hour queues of users trying to pay their utility bills on time. Why don’t we have an online payment system yet since everything is all computerized now?

The kicker: Will there be separate ladies kiosk’s?

Computerized salary payment introduced

July 27th, 2005

The office of accountant-general Azad Kashmir, will be making salary payments to government employees through a computerized (direct debit) payment system, reports dawn. These employees will further recieve a pay increase starting July. Pensioners will also recieve enhanced pensions, through this system.

Electronic money transfer may not be very welcome in a financial climate like Paksitan where tax evasion, word-of-mouth credit and cash are king; where people and businesses would prefer to keep everything off the books and out of the government/public eye. Salaried employees, however, would have much to gain and nothing to lose from this.

Tsunami Early Warning System in Pakistan

July 24th, 2005

With the recent 7.2 earthquake off the southern coast of India, Pakistan Met. Department is investing Rs.193 million in upgrading its seismological network toward a Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS). Current proposal is to install 15 broadband seismic centres, 50 short-band and 50 strong motion seismo-graphics across the vital regions. The data from these systems could be analyzed and processed within a couple of minutes.

In 1945, Balochistan coast was hit with an 8.3 Richter earthquake followed by 40 feet Tsunami waves resulting in 4000 casualties.

While these system will provide an early warning, there should be a public plan in place for an emergency response system detailing evacuation and relief. Say a warning is issued by TEWS and a tsunami is imminent, I don’t see how the people living in say the clifton/defence area would be able to evacuate within a matter of hours, let alone minutes (due to traffic congestion, bad roads, 3 major exit points to the inland, two of them being bridges etc). TEWS is only half the battle and hopefully the government is sensible enough to think two steps ahead.