Looking for audio and video equipment in Pakistan for video recording

In recent months i was involved with home studio setup and usage. It is a complete subject itself to understand the lighting, audio techniques along with the editing of recorded videos. There is very helpful content out there in video and text form for every one who is struggling to set up recording for VLogs, training content etc. Once you have concepts, understanding for all these areas then next phase is to get the equipment like camera (if you are looking other option than your cell phone), microphones, lights, lighting accessories, backgrounds, noise reduction coating etc.
To my surprise these accessories and equipment was not easily available even in Hafeez Centre Lahore and Hall Road market Lahore. Even not a good variety was available at online sale portals like Daraz. Importing these items is not suitable due to custom duty and related complications.
After discussion with some people in market i came to know about couple of suppliers with good variety of audio, video and lighting equipment with associated accessories.
You can also take a look at products on following link and also order there

• Hashmi Photos Karachi
• ION Karachi

Freshers first job guide

Getting a good job is like a dream come true for every graduate. Working with corporate, technology and starting to earn your own is a fantastic feeling that may keep you in trance even for weeks and months. It is ok and normal however there are some aspects that if you keep in mind would be very helpful in coming time.

Changing your daily routine and starting working for hours demands some planning and personal management. If you ignore these aspects then there is high risk that sooner or later different challenges will break your health, mind and career may end in very beginning by quitting the job.

Following is a very brief description of expected challenges and some tips to keep the things smooth.

Access

Access to working place is the first thing that you need to manage and keep as much convenient as you can. With a full demanding day ahead it would be a very bad idea to consume a portion of energy in effort to reach office. Spent more amount on traveling mode if it required and save energy for tasks at job.

Working environment

Offices try to provide best facilities to employees however there are some steps at your end to ensure the healthy and comfortable working environment.

• Check your desk and chair. Coordinate with administration at early if you see any issue and get those change. Or at least convey your concern if it cannot be addressed at the spot.
• Take an idea about your requirement for snack and water. Many people experience hunger while working continuously at desk. Avoid juices but make sure availability of plenty of water. Personal water bottle is a good idea for it.
• Sitting and sitting for a long time will consume you much faster than you think. Do not ever sit continuously for more than 2 hours and try to take a walk to any other fellow desk every one hour.
• Try to adopt the dress culture prevailed in office so that you do not have to diverge your mind while comparing your attire with others and justifying it to yourself. 
• Make friends and try to limit the domain to light topics of interest rather than family discussions and monitory transactions. These may complicate your office life.

Work and efficiency

Now let us come to the core point that is work and efficiency for which you are hired. I have a very good tip on it that will save you from complicated thinking. 

• Try to share work load of your manager/boss/immediate reporter whoever is giving tasks to you. Trying to take over his tasks will release his pain and also will provide you a measurable metrics of performance. 

Above was a primary strategy. Along with that it would be very helpful to grow if you can follow couple of other points

• Make sure that you are clear about the task that your are assigned and going to start.
• Do not hesitate to learn from senior. Believe me he will be very happy to guide you (exceptions are expected).
• If you have time then do some research for any task you are going to do. Or at least note it for later research.
• Get business domain knowledge for tasks that you are on. Business domain knowledge may be very important and crucial in some roles and less in others but it is not a thing to just ignore.
• Keep in touch with reporting manager for his/her views about your performance and shortcomings. Do not wait for annual reviews but make this thing regular.

Remember integrity and sense of responsibility are traits that you need to build for success always as a professional.

Issues at Police Facilitation Center Liberty Market Lahore

At Police Facilitation Center Liberty Market Lahore

Few weeks back i visited Police Facilitation Center Liberty Market Lahore for driving license process. This center is meant to provide basic services related to police/traffic police department. These services include vehicle verification, servant verification, legal guidance, character certification, and arranging police reports, international driving permits, learner and duplicate driving licenses and untraced vehicular reporting. 

There at 8 AM

I was there right on time (8 AM) and noticed that about 20 to 25 individuals are already in waiting area. Few were on postal tickets counters. For license process administrators had put a paper list where every individual was required to write his name with serial number. I entered my name on serial no 19. 

In mean while more applicants were gathered in waiting area office time was just started. Men in uniform were setting their desks in order and in few minutes couple of them started breakfast on their desk.

Bad News

One of staff member in police uniform came to waiting area and told that their DSL connection is not working. So we will have to visit any day later as their is no confirmation of issue resolution time. Couple of applicants argued that they are listening same excuse for last 3 days.

That same staff member started visiting waiting area after every few minutes to announce same problem. Applicants started dispersing. 

I do not believe

I was not able to believe that service may remain disconnected by PTCL for days. It looked suspicious to me and i decided to wait more. It was about 9:30 AM and hardly 6 license related applicants were there waiting for some thing to occur and solve the problem.

Crook gave good news

The mustache man in uniform came and told the applicants (including me) that u should go to side-by green area and just wait for my signal to come one by one. He further told that we can not handle large number of applicants so it is necessary to get rid of them. He got a new list from us with our names and started signaling us one by one from side of facilitation center.

Inside for processing

At my turn i entered into room to provide particulars and had a photograph. It was a relaxed environment in room as applicants were all gone.

Crooks criminally adding misery to people

At the end they had list of few applicants that were processed and all others were get rid of. It was a cruel and criminal behavior to add misery in life of people. I made a call to DIG office and informed them about the bad games at facilitation center. May some one take notice and teach them a lesson.

Taking shot against the food items contamination

We know that laws are hardly followed in Pakistan for food items. Government has dedicated departments and authorities for this purpose but they are not doing well. As a mature citizen we should try at our end to give tough time to those who are involved in food items contamination as it is destroying us as a nation. 

I recently submitted the milk sample for testing in laboratory of UVAS. It has good testing facilities with very nominal charges. I daily buy milk from a shop who claim to have good quality of milk and i thought to test their claim for my satisfaction.

I got a sample of about 200 ML raw milk and submitted at UVAS lab. They took a day to perform tests for various contamination components in milk. Next day of submission i got the verified report and a good surprise that milk was free of contamination like urea, detergents and starch etc.

It was a good experience and just to mention that if contamination was positive then i was going to submit the report in Punjab Food Authority office. We should take interest and spend some time to deal such problems. It will mobilize the Govt authorities as well and  will have good impact.

LESCO peak hours for electric power bills

Power charges get increased during peak hours. You can save significant amount by avoiding the heavy consumption during peak hours. Major consumption electric devices are cloth iron, water motors, vacuum cleaners, juicers, blenders etc.
Following is the schedule of LESCO (Lahore electric supply company)peak hours during different seasons of the year.

15 Things You Should Know About Pigs

Pigs are not liked in Islamic Sharia. Their use as food, pet and in industrial items is strictly prohibited. Most of people only know that they have bad nature but many of their secrets are unveiled by science and some are yet to come. Read following points and you will thank Allah that He guided us to abstain from it. 

• A pig is a real garbage gut. It will eat anything including urine, excrement, dirt, decaying animal flesh, maggots, or decaying vegetables. They will even eat the cancerous growths off other pigs or animals. 
• The meat and fat of a pig absorbs toxins like a sponge. Their meat can be 30 times more toxic than beef or venison. 
• When eating beef or venison, it takes 8 to 9 hours to digest the meat so what little toxins are in the meat are slowly put into our system and can be filtered by the liver. But when pork is eaten, it takes only 4 hours to digest the meat. We thus get a much higher level of toxins within a shorter time. 
• Unlike other mammals, a pig does not sweat or perspire. Perspiration is a means by which toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins remain within its body and in the meat. 
• Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons.
• Farmers will often pen up pigs within a rattlesnake nest because the pigs will eat the snakes, and if bitten they will not be harmed by the venom. 
• When a pig is butchered, worms and insects take to its flesh sooner and faster than to other animal's flesh. In a few days the swine flesh is full of worms. Swine and pigs have over a dozen parasites within them, such as tapeworms, flukes, worms, and trichinae. There is no safe temperature at which pork can be cooked to ensure that all these parasites, their cysts, and eggs will be killed. 
• Pig meat has twice as much fat as beef. A 3 oz T bone steak contains 8.5 grams of fat; a 3 oz pork chop contains 18 grams of fat. A 3 oz beef rib has 11.1 grams of fat; a 3 oz pork spare rib has 23.2 grams of fat. 
• Cows have a complex digestive system, having four stomachs. It thus takes over 24 hours to digest their vegetarian diet causing its food to be purified of toxins. In contrast, the swine's one stomach takes only about 4 hours to digest its foul diet, turning its toxic food into flesh. 
• The swine carries about 30 diseases which can be easily passed to humans. This is why God commanded that we are not even to touch their carcase. 
• The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. The symptoms are sometimes lacking, but when present they are mistaken for other diseases, such as typhoid, arthritis, rheumatism, gastritis, MS, meningitis, gall bladder trouble, or acute alcoholism. 
• The pig is so poisonous and filthy, that nature had to prepare him a sewer line or canal running down each leg with an outlet in the bottom of the foot. Out of this hole oozes pus and filth his body cannot pass into its system fast enough. Some of this pus gets into the meat of the pig.
• According to Jewish law, pork is one of a number of foods forbidden from consumption by Jews. These foods are known as "non-kosher" foods. In order for a meat to be kosher, it must first come from a kosher animal. A kosher animal must be a ruminant and have split hooves - therefore cows, sheep, goats and deer are all kosher, whereas camels and pigs (having each only one sign of kashrut) are not kosher. 
• Quran, Holy book of Muslims also prohibits consumption of pork. "He has made unlawful for you that which dies of itself and blood and the flesh of swine and that on which the name of any other than Allah has been invoked. But he who is driven by necessity, being neither disobedient nor exceeding the limit, then surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful." Quran 2:173 I cannot understand why anyone would eat it. You might as well vacuum all day and then take the vacuum bag and make a nice soup out of it. " Of course our Creator has given us the health laws through the Holy Quran and not eating pigs is even CLEARLY mentioned in the Bible (Leviticus 11:07) But some humans think they are more intelligent than the Creator so they choose it.

Review of Sony Ericson Xperia Ray (ST18i)

Xperia Ray is my first Andriod phone. I found it wonderful in terms of design, display and performance. Its specs are not much lofty however comparing price and performance it is a good choice. General specs are 3.3 inch screen, 8 MP camera, Andriod updatable to 4.0.4 ICS. It has good audio quality and due to relatively small screen size battery time is quite good. Internal memory is 1GB (not all available to user) with about 512 MB RAM. However you may experience lack of CPU cycles as it is 1 GHz and not able to handle very heavy applications/games. I am satisfied with its performance and enjoying its use.

Nokia E63 asking for lock code after firmware update

In my last post i discussed couple of considerations while updating the Nokia E63 firmware. If you have executed the update process through Nokia PC suite, then you may be asked about lock code after the update process. The situation would get worst if you ever changed the default phone code and then abandoned its use.

What to do

• First of all, try the default code that is 12345. If it does not work then go for following option
• Dial 112 for emergency call, code prompt would leave the screen. But this is not solid solution. Code prompt would be there after every restart of phone.
• Now install Nokia OVI Suite and re-update the firmware to same version or next available one.

Update through OVI suite would prevent the prompt of old abandoned lock code. 

Update Nokia E63 Software / firmware

Nokia E63 was launched in 2009. With querty keypad, good display and stable software it is considered one the good selling product of E series. To get the firmware version of your Nokia phone dial *#0000#*. Currently firmware version 510.21.010 is available for update.

What is new in new version
Documentation for new features is not available however after the update i have noticed the improved Nokia Email. And may be a little better battery performance.

Important points for update

There are couple of points that may save you from post update hassle.

• Backup all your data. Updating the firmware would erase all the data from phone and memory card. It also includes SMS, address book, notes etc. 
• Use OVI suit instead of Nokia PC suite. 

Update with PC suit may lead you to a situation where you would be asked for a previous phone code. It is the code that you set last time as phone code, then disabled the code check and forgot it. Update may be around 100 MB.   

Post Update

Cell phone is restarted at the end of a successful update. Now restore your data backup and preferences.

If Already dumped
If you are here after update through Nokia PC suite and being prompted for a forgotten lock code then click here to read about the way out.

Media manipulation and predation of Forward Operating Base Salerno

In June 2012 Taliban launched an attack on FOB Salerno in southeastern Afghanistan. ISAF authorities there declared it a failed effort. They also claimed that couple of soldiers got minor injuries and effort was foiled by killing number of Taliban invaders. Media giants like BBC, CNN and Algazeera simply second the authorities views. 

Surprisingly withing days Taliban shared a full fledged video of preparation and execution of operation. About a dozen Taliban fighters executed the operation after days of preparation. And about 10 tons of explosive material was used for initial explosion. It is more than any heavy weight daisy cutter bomb used by US against Taliban. Later the fighters entered and predated the camp along with number of ISAF soldiers casualties. 

Taliban did a great job by executing as well as recording the operation. With some delayed release of video they were able to expose the hypocrisy and misleading statements of ISAF as well as biased media. 

Cheer fever in Pakistan

Cheerleaders were introduced in western countries for fascinating the audience of any game. Behind it was same exploiter business mind who always use the females as a product to gain attraction and involvement. Any how may be it was not too much conflicting with the western culture.

Then we observed this mean trend recently in UAE and Indian play grounds. Again investors used the young girls for attracting and fascinating the audience. But it was very very shocking for me to have same trend in play grounds of Pakistan. A country whose culture and values do not permit this shameful act. Rather it is a social crime to perform such foolish and mean acts here.

Like ever media also promoted it as a social progress and such performances are a clear message of high jacking the culture and views of Pakistani masses.

I request every Pakistani blogger and online community to condemn cheer fever in Pakistan, else it is going to be more devastating than Dengue fever. I repeat C fever could be more devastating than D fever.

CM Punjab should take care of it also as it is being injected in Pakistan through Punjab play grounds.

Concerts in educational institutes

Few days back Punjab Assembly passed a resolution and banned the music concerts in its educational institutes. Apparently it was aftermath of incident in Atif Aslam's concert, which claimed three lives and left several injured. This specific concert was organized by Punjab Group of Colleges at Al-Hamra Cultural Complex. Any how keeping in view the trends associated with majority of Pakistani citizens, no major campaign was being expected against this resolution. One can easily find that an over whelming portion of middle class does not like such music activities for their children.
However i was astonished to watch the wind that various channels propagated against this resolution. Anchors and news persons immediately took some music related personalities online. Obviously music related personalities condemn the Punjab Govt act and declared it very harmful for peaceful society. Few politicians were also taken online and were badly depressed by media persons.
No one bothered to consult the public opinion or religious concerns. Media made his move and it was successfully deceived that Punjab Assembly banned the cultural activities and performed a very harmful act against social liberties.
Politicians became very much under pressure and another resolution was passed rejecting their prior view. It is a very shameful act of Pakistani media that they misguided the law makers against the public opinion. If there should be concerts in educational institutes then why not in hospitals, parliament, courts, prisons, nuclear installations, GHQ, air bases, naval fleets and even in homes. If it is our culture then let it flourish every where.
In fact it is part of an effort to impose and insert the music in our culture. Such music is not culture of people of Pakistan. It may culture of a minority that is being imposed on whole nation. 

Then What?

Magic of Imran Khan and Tehreek-e-Insaf is high and prevailed now a days. Student circles look dominant with PTI supporters and those who are not fully convinced are excited to test it in coming time. Palmist and predictioners willingly or unwillingly paved the grounds for PTI popularity. Such personalities along with columnists and media persons are continuously issuing statements about near future elite status of Pakistan. They are predicting about a new leadership allied with some very honest and trust worthy team and together they would take the Pakistan to a new era of success and honor in the world. Such prophecies are backed with  prophecies by famous saints of past. 

I am an optimistic individual and like every one i turn to such prophecies and predictions that are related to a happy and honorable Pakistan. However i have some solid views that are required to be satisfied. 

As long as Imran Khan is concerned, let us assume he may be like many other leaders who came in our country in past and were very loyal to Pakistan. We can start by Quaid-e-Azam himself then Liaqat Ali Khan, ZA Bhutto, Asghar Khan and may be some others. All these that i mentioned were true leaders and were very loyal to Pakistan but no one was able to lead our country out of where we are in today. 

In case of Imran Khan, the morally and financially corrupt team around him is not capable of leading the Pakistan to a better future. His prominent corrupt team members are Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khurshid Mehmood Qasuri and a famous singer and corrupt social worker Abrar ul Haq. Who the hell these people are who claim to lead our honorable nation? And even if Khan successfully filters out the sub standard members of his team even then he would not allowed to act freely in satanic democratic system. He would get indulged in complicated rules of bureaucracy and number games of politics. And last option is always there to eliminate him from the scene like other leaders those i mentioned above.

So i think the real concern should be change of system rather than change of faces. The satanic, corrupt and exploitery system of democracy should be thrown out of Pakistan and a system should be configured which should strictly follow the frame work of Islam. This is our only way out and those who work for it would lead the Pakistan to her elite destiny.

Dead by drone and martyrs of crusader coalition

While US/NATO has predated couple of posts leaving dead dozen of front line state soldiers, every one in Pakistan is now talking about martyrdom, sovereignty, justice, honor and other terms like these. Pakistan army awarded the dead soldiers with lofty title of Shaheed, as this title is reserved for Pakistan Army soldiers by the Almighty. And no matter how much they are involved in assisting the modern oily crusaders, every of their dead soldier is ready made Shaheed.

Propaganda and deception has mesmerized the whole Umma in general and Pakistan in particular. The reality is that as long as Pakistan is an ally in war on terror, Pakistan security forces are as condemnable as NATO and US army that are involved in plundering and looting of whole muslim world. Dead ones of Pakistan security operators may be called Shaheed in nationalistic sense but they can never be declared Shaheed as an Islamic title.

As in case of Salala check post, the dead ones are an example of losers in this world and here after. Here they have lost their lives in a far away area while being ally of crusaders, and here after they would be deal with those who assisted the armies against muslims and muslim countries.

Saving country, nuclear assets or other lame excuses like these are not acceptable before the Almighty Lord. His orders are clear, when there is exam, choose your side.

In deed those who have denied the obedience of all but Allah are true in their faith and they would be rewarded for this by Allah.

Tracing the Haqqani Network

The disputed and dangerous Haqqani Group is unleashed now. Amazingly it was not settled in tribal belt as always narrated but found in elite circles of power connecting Islamabad and Washington. The bad boys were very near to national security setups than ever expected. Every one was convinced to eliminate Haqqani Network if it was the case of a tribal warrior. But in case of a elite conspirator only resignation is enough. In fact Hussain Haqani and many others like him are state enemies, they have nothing to do with national interests of Pakistan.

But his resignation refreshes many other occasions in my mind when resignations were due but not processed. None of military establishment took responsibility of any of their incompetence during past and near past. Haqqani resignation once again highlights the military dominance in Pakistan.

A great Quraanic project, Tanzil

Tanzil is a Quranic project launched in early 2007 to produce a highly verified Unicode Quran text to be used in Quranic websites and applications. Mission of this project is to provide accurate Unicode text of holy Quraan for onward use on web.

Along with this mission they have provided excellent interface for browsing, searching, translating and listening of holy Quraan.

It is a much appreciable effort and we should utilize it and join hands with this team to serve this noble cause. Just click here to visit the project website.

Leadership required! a tranquilizer and a myth

Our country Pakistan is facing a number of challenges and problems in almost every field. A nation whose majority is not loyal to Islam, humanity and law. It is effect of various factors that operated here for a long time. And the remaining is covered by corrupt politicians along with civil and military establishment.

People are now in a state of pessimism about almost whole current political leadership. Often i hear views which show that majority of people consider the lack of leadership as main problem and they think that without a real and bold leadership nothing could be made better.

In fact it is a misconception and is being planted by media intentionally or unintentionally. In near history we have experienced a very successful movement which is known as lawyers movement. This movement has very profound effects on politics and democratic system of country. Following are some of these effects

• CJ Pakistan along with other judges was reinstalled 
• Played role in demolishing of Musharraf dictatorship
• Strengthened the democratic system
• Strengthened the supreme court for major decisions

These along with many other are the achievements and effects of lawyers movement. If we analyze the movement from its start, we have following important observations.

• Lawyers movement was not planned
• CJ was not a leader even not a well known public figure
• There were no campaigns to pull out the common people from their homes in to protests and gatherings
• No leaders were nominated, few determined lawyers came forward without and external influence

What we learn

This shows that leadership is not pre-requisite for any positive change. Leadership emerges automatically and it may be not well known to masses. So we should come out of dormancy and should believe that leadership would be there naturally whenever public would be mobilized.

Istikhara for every decision

Allah almighty has provided us Islam as complete way of life. Many times we are confused with available options. In such conditions Prophet peace be upon him guided to perform Istikhara for seeking guideline and blessings of Allah in that particular matter. So whenever you are confused with your options just offer 2 raka prayer and read following Dua with darood shareef. Allah would guide you to right option.

Once you have performed Istikhara, no specific dreams and cautions are required for guideline. Right option would emerge automatically and it would become easy for you. So after Istikhara your duty is over and there is no need to indulge in dreams and signs about it. Allah almighty would guide you to right option once you have asked Him for His favor in your issue.

How to remove caller tunes from Jaz, Zong, Telener, UFone or Warid numbers

Cell phones are commonly used in Pakistan by all age groups. Most of people are very well versed by new and changed packages and facilities provided by their service providers. Telecom service providers have introduced a functionality known as caller tunes. People set these so that all of their callers may hear the music or Naat while waiting the call to be attended.
I have noticed that some people complain that caller tune is activated automatically and how to remove it now?
So here is how to remove caller tunes

• For Zong           SMS UNR to 230
• For Telenor        SMS OFF to 230
• For Jazz             SMS UNSUB to 230
• For UFone         SMS UNSUB to 666
• For Warid           SMS RBT OFF to 7171

Note: I have not personaly verified the above procedures. If any thing requires correction then please mention it.

Some simple tips to be environment friendly

The Earth has already become a dangerous place to live in for the animals and birds. Soon it might be our turn. So let's pledge to save our beautiful planet so that you and your future generations can live happily and peacefully ever after. At your end follow the simple but effective tips.

Use power button

There is a cute small round press button at the bottom right corner of almost all monitors: Please make use of this button.

Avoid printing

Stop printing out Harry Porter, Jeffrey Archer and other e-books. This is a classic example of paper wastage.

Use both sides of print paper

If you have printer with double side print facility then make use of it. If it is not so or you forgot to give double-side prints, make sure you make use of the empty sides as scribbling pads or for your kids' imposition.

Make sure to shut down

Take two minutes from your busy schedule before hurrying back home to shut down the computer.

Blackle (energy efficient search engine)

All of us are big time Googlers. Have you heard of the Blackle search engine? Blackle (Google powered) is a search engine designed all in Rich Black so that your system consumes less power. So change your homepage.

Say no to plastic bags

Plastic bags these days indeed come in bright and flamboyant colours and tempt us to take them home with us. But the saying, "Appearances are deceptive" holds true for these plastic things too. Next time, hold back or go prepared to counter temptation with a cloth bag.

Grow small plants

Roses, Jasmine, Hibiscus and Peas; All these saplings cost hardly between Rs 10 - 20 each. Can't we afford to plant these in and around our houses? Also, more importantly, caring and maintain them as they grow.

Avoid horns

Try to minimize the use of horns. Honking has drastically increased and this adds to the noise pollution and does not provide a conducive environment to live in.

Categorized waste

Try to segregate the different kinds of waste into Bio-Degradable (Fruit or vegetable waste) , Recyclable (waste Paper, paper products) and Electronics (Floppy disks, CD-ROMS ). Once you have segregated your thrash, look for specialized trash cans to throw them away.

Rechargeable Batteries

Use rechargeable batteries though it's an expensive product, it's one-time purchase. Recharge when required. (Same applies to cell-phones, MP3s, iPods and Laptops)

Ink pens and pencils

The best pens to use would be ink ones. Though if you have to use a ball point pen, buy refills instead of buying new pens. Pencils are much better for rough use!

Take care of water tap

Remember to close water taps before preening in front of the mirror. Of course you are beautiful, but Water is a precious resource!

Turn the lights off

Let's not just wake up and walk out of finished meetings and conferences with a sigh of relief, let us remember to turn off the lights and projectors too. Also make sure to off the lights when going out of rooms at home.

Do you know?

Take few minutes to learn about topics like 'Global Warming' , 'Air / Noise /Land / Water Pollution ' etc apart from constant surfing of News, Latest Gadgets, Movies and Music.

And as last tip, spread this message to your friends and colleagues. They too can make a difference.