Bangladesh Played Well But…

Once again, Australian captain has steered his team to victory and this time against Bangladesh at Fatullah but Bangladesh played really well. Before the start of the match, every one thought that it would be a one-sided game as Australia is playing with full strength and even their strength has been increased by the inclusion of Jason Gillespie but the real story was quite different. Bangladesh made more than 350 runs on first day with a run rate of more than 4 runs per over. Their performance in the bowling and fielding was also impressive as aussies were 6/93 in first innings. In the end of the day, he was Ponting who stand between and Bangladesh and their first historic victory. Just before the lunch on day 5, Australia required 24 to win with 3 wickets in hand when ponting was dropped and home fans knew that not only the Ponting been dropped but the match has been dropped. Finally, it was game with full thrill and seeing the home side performance, a good contest was expecting at Chittagong in second test.

Quotes

Today, I come across a couple of worth mentioning quotes.

He who praises you for what you lack wishes to take from you what you have.
- Don Juan Manuel

Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrow keeps you Human,
Failure keeps you Humble,
Success keeps you glowing,
But only God keeps you going.

DropDownList V ComboBox

In ASP.NET, the DropDownList can be bound as:

this.dropDownList.DataSource = dataSet;
if (dataSet.Tables[0].Rows.Count > 0)
{
this.dropDownList.DataTextField = "Text";
this.dropDownList.DataValueField = "Value";
}
this.dropDownList.DataBind();

Where as in Windows Application, the DropDownList can be bound as:

this.comboBox1.DataSource = dataSet.Tables[0];
this.comboBox1.DisplayMember = "Text";
this.comboBox1.ValueMember = "Value";

The difference between the two is that in ASP.NET, DropDownList can be bound with a DataSet provided that DataSet contains only one DataTable where as in Windows Application, ComboBox can only be bound with a DataTable. The "Text" and "Value" are the columns in the DataTable.

A Remarkable Day In Cricket History

Yesterday was a rememberable day in the history of cricket. A a lot of new world records have been made. Australia was playing the last game of 5 match away series against South Africa. Before this match, series was level at 2-2. Australia's captain won the toss and rightly so decided to bat first. A huge pile of runs and australia finished with 4/434 and became the first ever team that scored more than 400 runs in 50 over game. Ricky Ponting played a true captain's knock and lead from the front. During the innings break at Johannesburg, it looked like that Australia would won the series decider in a one sided game but what a reply from South Africa. They fought brilliantly and, in the end of the day, took the match away from Aussies. A nail bitting match was over. A new history has been set where both the teams made more than 400 runs with a run rate of 8.7. 87 fours and 26 sixers have been hit from both sides and its a truely entertaining encounter but, off course, not for the bowlers of each side. Saeed Anwar hold the record of highest individual innings by any player in ODI. He scored 194 against India back in 1997. Yesterday, both, Ponting and Gibbs, reached very near to the world record by making 164 and 175 respectively but still so far. 9/438 is the new world record for successful chase in 50 over game. It looks impossible for any team to break this record but don't forget that "records are made to be broken". In short, yesterday's game was a truly entertaining game of cricket and played between the two top ranked teams in ICC ODI Championship table.

Professional Attitude

Nowadays, my official working hours are from 1500 hrs to 2300 hrs. Working in these hours is not so easy when whole of the office evacuates about 1900 hrs. Some guys are also there beyond the office hours. One can think that its real pleasure to work in the office when there is no much noise. A work can be done and completed in much lesser time which requires a lot of concentration but the situation is really worst than the normal office hours. The people who remain in office with their own will are just there for fun. They enjoy themselves by listening to loud music and some of them are also whistling with loud noise. In such situations, I wish to run away from the office if I can but the problem is I can't leave the office before my schedule time. Such a situation is so embarrassing for me. There should be a professional attitude in professional life. Things that a lot of people used to do in their student life should be away from the office premises.

Every Failure Leads To Great Success

Quran says:
Never disappoint from the Blessings of Allah.

If one works hard but doesn't get the desired results, a wave of disappointment stops him to move further in that direction. This is natural to all human beings but one forgets that only Allah Almighty knows all about future. This failure may prevent him from hidden difficulties or this failure may lead him to another direction that will be much better for him. We, human beings, can only see what is apparent but we can't see beyond a limit. Only time can prove that whatever happened was right at that time. So, never disappoint from a single or even a series of failures but keeps on hard work. Night may be long but a day always come after a night. So, always keeps in mind that "Every failure leads to a great success but determination is required".

Pakistan V India - 2006 Test Series

Test series between Pakistan and India is over. All eyes are now on one day clash. Pakistan's performance was outstanding as compared to India. Just consider Karachi test, Pakistan came back really well after losing 6 top order batsmen for just 39. In the end, they managed to make a respectable total of 245. In reply to that, India bowled out for 238 and Pakistan lead by 7 runs. Pakistan bowling performance was very good but due to 4-5 drop catches in the field, they only managed 7 runs lead after first innings. In the second innings, they started well and put a new world record of 7 individual scores greater than 50 in one innings. India had to chase 607 to win the match in the 4th innings of game which could be the world record chase but they collapsed for merely 265 with whole one day left and match ended on the 4th day with Pakistan as winner. When Pakistan was batting in 2nd innings, the pitch looked very favorable to batting conditions and every one expect that India would give a strong reply as Indian batting is much stronger than Pakistan's but that wasn't true. Even after losing quick wickets, no one from Indian side bothered to stay at the wicket to save the match. In the end of the day, Pakistan has won the test series by 1-0 and now they move up to 4th spot in ICC Test Championship. I wish to see Pakistan as winner of ODI series as well, Insha-Allah.

Recently, Pakistan & India Performed Well...

Last couple of months is really good for both arch rivals, Pakistan and India. Pakistan beat England in test series (2-0) as well as one day series (3-2). India beat Sri Lanka in test series (2-0) and climbed up to 2nd spot in ICC Test Championship. Pakistan also performed well in recent times and clinched the 3rd spot in ICC ODI Championship. Before the last encounter between Pakistan and England, both Pakistan and South Africa shared the 2nd spot in ICC ODI Championship and if Pakistan managed to snatch the victory in last day / night encounter, then Pakistan would easily be ahead of South Africa. Anyways, a lot of cricket is left in the season. India is coming to Pakistan and first test will be started in the first week of January. Very interesting games are expected as both teams have won the home series and have high morale.

Pakistan Beat Ashes Winners

Yesterday, Pakistan won the test series against England 2-0. Pakistan suffered in the first match at Multan but at the end of the day, Pakistan emerged as the winners after a close contest. The second test at Faisalabad could be declared as Inzamam's test as he scored centuries in both innings and hammered the English bowlers in every corner of the ground but England managed to keep the series alive till the final test at Lahore. Lahore test was almost a one sided game as England scored just 288 on batting track and Pakistan replied with a huge total of 636/8 including a glorious double century of Muhammad Yousuf and century of Kamran Akmal. England had to play almost one and half day to save the match. Things are under control of English team till lunch on the final day but in post lunch session, Pakistan's pace man Shoaib Akhtar and leg spinner Danish Kaneria finished the match as well as series in just 76 balls by picking up 8 wickets for 43 runs. Pakistan also moves 3 steps up in the ICC test ranking and now on 4th place. Now, the One days are ahead. I think that will be an interesting contest too.

Last 1 Month!

The last month was full of news as on October 08, 2005, a massive quake jolted various parts of Pakistan. The magnitude of quake was 7.6. It was the forth largest quake of the history. According to official reports, more than 73,000 people lost their lives and many many more are suffered from serious injuries. Many villages and cities in Azad Kashmir have destroyed completely. In Islamabad, one block of residential building was collapsed to ground due to quake. I was living in the building in front of margalla tower. I left for Lahore just 2 hours before the quake. Lahore was also jolted but no serious destruction. Now, I am in Lahore as our project has been shifted here. I am very happy as this is the first time I am working in my own office. Ramadan was also going fine. I came to Lahore on 3rd or 4th of Ramadan, so, it became easy for me to keep fasts with my family.

Ramadan-ul-Mubarik

Today is the first of Ramadan-ul-Mubarik. This is the first time that I am away from my home and family in Ramadan. It would be a new experience for me. I also went to say traavi prayer last night. Now, I am just coming after taking sehri meal from the cafe in the building. May we get full benefit from this holy month and Allah Almighty bless all of us with His Grace.

Development In ASP.NET

At the end of this week, I have completed more than 85% work of my assigned task with 1 more week or 5 more working days to go. I have to complete the whole task that have assigned to me in 5 weeks. My assigned tasks consists of 6 use cases and these use cases are to be implemented in .NET Framework v1.1, so, I am enjoying developing the web pages in ASP.NET much more than in classic ASP. I have to develop 13 .aspx pages including almost all the database operations of searching, adding, updating and deleting records on each page. All the pages are developed and rest of the 15% work includes the implementation of one of the module, correction of unit testing errors (if any) and correction of integration testing errors (if any). I could complete my at least 5% more work today but at the end of the week and start of the weekend, it gets very difficult to work with the same pace and consistency and if working hours extend beyond 10-12 hours every day, its really get worse at the end of the week. I hope to get things done in the start of the new week, Insha-Allah.

My First Professional Review

Couple of days back, my first review was communicated to me. My team lead had submitted my review in the last days of July depending upon my performance. The review is carried out by the team leads after every six months. This was my first professional review. Employee is judged on 21 different parameters. My performance was not so bad as indicated by my review sheet. I also got one EE (Exceeding Expectation). In about half of the parameters, I fully meet the expectations where as in the remaining categories, I met most of the expectations (70% - 80%). The next review will be carried out in the month of January. I hope to carry out this performance but rather to improve that as well.

England Regain Ashes

At last, after 16 years, England regain the Ashes. Last time, England won the Ashes in 1989. England really played very well through out the tournament but Aussies gave them a tough time as expected from the world champs. Shane Warne, once again shown his class and picked up 40 wickets in 5 tests including an incomplete England batting innings. He also reached a milestone of 600 test wickets. Flintoff and Pieterson proved real threat to Ponting and his team and played a major role for Michael Vaughan to lift the Ashes trophy. Real disappointed performance from Aussies' top and middle order batsmen. Today after the match has ended, Ponting admits "Apart from when we won at Lord's (first Test) we were never as good as England and they deserve to win the Ashes" as well as Warne states "England were better than us; it is as simple as that. We had a great battle but we were never as good as England throughout the series."

100th Post

I have joined the ASP and .NET forum in the last days of April. Today, I have submitted 100th post on that forum. In the beginning, most of my posts comprised of my own problems that I have encountered during the development. Now, in the recent times, I also answer the questions of other posts. Visiting such forums helps one to understand the various problems that people encounter and also the solutions of those problems. These problems are most likely be encountred by others as well in future and blessing is that they would already know the solution. In my view point, it is also a mode of learning. Different solutions of the same problem are proposed by different people and one can find the most feasible solution. One of the good things of the forum that I have joined is that one can also award points to others depending upon the post. I have gathered 24 points so far. Last but not the least, I try my level best to continue this practice because I know that the problem I will encounter would be encountered by most of the people before me and there is a fair chance that I will find the solution. Similarly others should also visit the forums because they should also know that problem they will encounter would be encountered by me before them and there is a fair chance that they will find the solution.

Release II Is complete...

After a long time, almost after a month, I has visited the site. I was quite busy in my work. Thanks to Allah Almighty, release II of the project is now completed. I have learned a lot more in this release than the previous release as release I was very conventional. Release I composed of almost simple database interaction to view, insert, update and delete data through an ASP page. Release II was very tough and different if compared with release I. In release II, the page behavior was very complex but still it could be easily manageable. The most brainstorming part of the release II is the uploading an excel file from the client to server through ASP and then transform the data from the file to database through DTS. It was totally a new work for me. It took some additional time but still I been able to do all this task successfully with all the error handling, thanks to Allah Almighty. Now, I can relax a bit.

Analysis & Design Factor In Software Development

During early acedamic days in university, we all (me and all the persons whom I know) used to start developing the project without the necessary analysis and design. The thing that we have in our mind in those days were that we would waste our time if we don't start the development as early as possible. With the passage of time, we studied various courses of core computer sciences including the course of software engineering. In software engineering course, we studied various models of software development. These models have their own merits and de-merits but the main emphasis of all the models is that do the necessary analysis and desing first before starting development because it is very easy and time effective to fix the minor errors but very difficult and time consuming to almost re-code all the project. Our early concept of wasting time seems incorrect and rightly so. I myself really try mylevel best to adopt the increamental model of software development in my last two term projects and successful to a certain level. Without the necessary analysis and design, start of writing code seems feasible for a student project to some extent but quite infeasible for a professional level project where quality and time is an important factor. Just consider the scenario that a developer is developing ASP pages referring from FS. After few days, to implement a certain functionality not mentioned in FS, he has to develop his own understanding first and then re-think whole things so to avoid errors. The most worst case would be resulted if after unit testing, he has been asked to exclude that additional functionality. This all would result if analysis and desing wasn't conducted completely. At professional level, it should be avoided not only to increase the quality but also the productivity and throughput of the developers.

Matriculation Result!

Few days back, Lahore Board has declared the matriculation result. I just come to know that overall first position has been captured by a girl. Thats not so surprising to me as the girls are really very brilliant for the last 5-6 years. The good news that surprised me is that that girl belongs to my old school. When I did my matriculation years back, our batch was the third one from the school that appeared in the board exams. I got third position in my school. Our batch's overall result was 99%. (The girls wing result was 100% and boys wing result was 98%). Keeping in mind that it was the third batch from school, it was a remarkable performance. Our batch had been considered the best for many years in the school.

Some Quotes...

The strong man is not a good wrestler;
the strong man is only the one who controls himself
when he is angry.(Muhammad PBUH)

Someone once asked me
"why do you always insist on taking the hard road"?
and I replied
"why do you assume I see two raods"?

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.
It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

A life with love will have some thorns
but a life without love will have no roses.

Enjoy your life today because
yesterday has gone
and tommorrow may never come.

If I am out of time and I could pick one day,
one moment and keep it new,
of all of the days I have lived
I would pick the day I met you.

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is.(Albert Einstein)

It is not that I am afraid to die,
it is that if I die,
who will love you as I do.

There are things that are known,
and things that are unknown,
and in between,
there are doors.

Its Really Too Hot And Humid!

Few weeks back, when I had to come to Islamabad from Lahore, I went to Daewoo terminal in Lahore. I used to get my seat reserved a day before as to avoid any inconvenience. That day, when I reached Daewoo terminal, there was more people than my expectation. Perhaps due to the reason that vacations had been started in schools, so, most of the people were moving towards Islamabad or beyond Islamabad to northern areas away from the hot and humid weather of Lahore. It seemed that all the people of Lahore are going to Islamabad. Anyways, I went to waiting lounge and wait for the time to get the ticket. My seat is reserved in the ordinary luxury bus and scheduled to depart from Lahore at 11:30. One VIP bus was scheduled at 11:00 and its destination was also Islamabad. (The fare of VIP bus was more than the fare of luxury bus.) When I reached at the counter to purchase the ticket, I saw one long queue and many small queues around it. I stood at the end of long queue. After some time, I came to know that VIP bus that had to go at 11:00 got some problem and now the Daewoo administration arranged another bus for them but that replacement bus is only luxury so the extra fare to each passenger must be refunded. That was the cause of rush there. I also got my ticket and went to the bus. There were two buses labeled Lahore to Islamabad. One was going at 11:30 and other was scheduled at 11:35. My bus was going at 11:35. When I entered the bus, its great surprise to me that its was VIP bus and had only 37 seats. Luxury bus contains 45 seats. 45 tickets had been issued and passengers having seat numbers from 38-45 were looking at each other. What happened to those, I don't know because then the bus started its journey but one thing for sure that if Daewoo administration thought not for long but just for a moment before taking any step that the bus scheduled at 11:30 was ordinary and they let it go according to the schedule and next bus at 11:35 was VIP and it could be an easy replacement for all the passengers who had taken VIP bus tickets. No need for refund and they also allowed the ticket holders of luxury bus to travel in the VIP. Its really too hot and humid in Lahore nowadays and even personals in Daewoo administration couldn’t escape from that.