Shock of 2010: Apple's profit surges 70 percent

The recession is not over yet...the rows of unemployed are ever increasing...Yellow notes (as they are commonly referred to forms of unemployment) are piling up. Yet strangely technology firms are faring better and better. First the GOOGLE announced its results, then came the profits announcements from IBM Corp. and now Apple's profits are announced to surge by a whopping whopping 70% reaching around 24 billion dollars. Seems like technology firms are not only making smart products but also making smart business moves. With Google moving into automobiles, IBM discarding PC operations and Apple focusing more on IPhone and giving less to ITablet, the product orientation is also changing. And above all, the predictions by STEVE JOBS about Android Products being DOA...Dead on Arrival....The future is exciting for technology wars folks...enjoy the read at:

Apple's profit surges 70 percent, topping IBM's results | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Dallas Business News

ICET 2010: October 18-19, FAST-NU, Islamabad

IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies 2010 (ICET 2010) is being held in Islamabad, Pakistan, on October 18-19, 2010. The conference is being organized by FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (FAST-NUCES) under the umbrella of IEEE Islamabad chapter. The papers published in the conference proceedings will be searchable through IEEE Xplore ®.

IEEE ICET 2010 conference is the 6th of its series, being held every year. ICET is an advanced technical conference, covering various disciplines under IEEE’s domain. The conference aims to have research presentations by researchers from a wide range of academic and professional backgrounds. It also includes a series of tutorials by domain experts enabling participants to learn about the latest trends in various technologies.

Software Engineering Institute: The place that gave us CMM and CMMI has new program director

Anita Carleton

The Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) recently named Anita Carleton director of its Software Engineering Process Management (SEPM) Program. As director of the SEPM Program, Carleton will oversee the SEI's software process and measurement initiatives, which include the internationally recognized Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) framework, which helps organizations increase the maturity of their processes to improve long-term business performance, and the Team Software Process (TSP), a software engineering method designed to yield high-quality software and high-performance teams. The link given below:

Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute Names New Program Director

Missing people of Pakistan: An explosive coverage by Guernica Magazine on its celebration of 6 years of serious publishing

"Missing People of Pakistan" is a story of pain and agony that caused several heads to roll, a government to be nearly toppled, a whole supreme court of a nation to be held hostage and a whole new breed to terrorism to emerge on the false pretext of revenge. And yet, those around whom the story was spun, never returned home.

Cuba

There were different hues and colors of these missing people...Rebels craving for their rights from Baluchistan, Journalists and free minds from fiercely independent PakhtunKhawah, God fearing but absolutely sociable youth from Punjab, Human rights activists and trade unionists from Sindh...they came in all colors. But all of them had two things in common...a desire to be free and a hate for imperialism (whether in the hands of dictator, USA or Taliban)...And this caused their disappearance. No'one knows who took them away...Taliban, America or our own capable intelligence agencies.

and Pakistan

The missing people will haunt forever. Many of us might well be familiar with "Ladies in White" of Cuba who are protesting for their missing ones since early 70. I believe as long as the conscience of Pakistani nation is alive, we shall also keep protesting for "our missing people". It is better for all concerned to take heed and get the whole nation out of this agony... The report is at the following link

http://www.guernicamag.com/features/2096/garcia_10_15_10/

Update on Plot to Assasinate PM of Pakistan

The BBC report has given a new twist to all of this tale by claiming that accused were the same people involved in the bombing of ISI Headquarters in Multan district situated in southern Punjab region on 8th of December 2009 killing several and injuring dozens. The whole news coverage is on this link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/10/101014_terrorists_arrested_as.shtml

A video clip of that deadly attack is given here:

Breaking News: Plot to assasinate Prime Minister of Pakistan Revealed

Prime Minister of Pakistan

Seems like today is a day of surprises. CNN has been reporting for a while now that an attempt to assassinate the prime minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani has been nabbed (thanks god for that) and several people have been taken into custody in this regard. The full news coverage is on the following link....

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/14/pakistan.plot/

Given below is the complete coverage:

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Several people have been seized in a plot to kill Pakistan's prime minister, and the suspects claim they were getting orders from a militant in the country's volatile tribal region, police said.
Police official Babar Bakhat Qureshi told CNN that officers arrested several suspects who were plotting to attack the compound of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Shabir Anwar, Gilani's press secretary, had no comment on the alleged plot because it is a security matter.
The plot to strike the compound, located in the Punjab provincial city of Multan, was in its "final planning stages," Qureshi said. The location is about 395 kilometers, or 245 miles, southeast of the nation's capital, Islamabad.
The suspects were planning to use a car bomb for the attack, and that they had acquired large amounts of fertilizer to manufacture an improvised explosive device, since confiscated by police, he said.
A vehicle for the attack had not been acquired yet.
The police confiscated one kilogram of gold and and two and a half kilograms of silver, which the men were going to sell to fund the plot, the official said.
Qureshi said the suspects have confessed that they were getting their orders and instructions from Kari Imram, a leader of a Taliban offshoot group from Miran Shah in North Waziristan. Drone strikes said to be conducted by the United States have targeted militants in North Waziristan, one of seven of the county's tribal districts.

The arrests were made after police stopped three suspects traveling on two motorcycles near Multan in the town of Ahmed Pur Sharkia on a check during a police patrol. Questioning led police to other suspects.

The "Game Changer" ; Pakistan: The New Great Game: China, Iran, Russia, Central Asia

Guernica is a highly respectable journal of strategic studies currently in its sixth year of publication with potentially "unbiased" and non-emotional reporting. In its recent issues, two major pieces have appeared which deal with Pakistan. Today is the first piece for you to read. Please follow the link given below to read full article. We, here in Pakistan, have come to see our foreign policy as the most rudderless, vision-less and pathetic piece of crap (not in my eyes) with a total submission to American interests. In this piece however, while describing the new great game, which is all about oil and gas for the monstrously bulging China, a new picture emerges of Pakistan, "The Game Changer" and how it is operating under such stressful times of earthquakes, floods, internal and external wars to maintain its sovereignty and finally bring something good for its people.

Europe is history...Japan is Past...This is where we have a new start

I have always believed that we are a nation of great potential, talent, geography and certain amount of vision (and a sense to preserve ourselves as Pakistanis). True, we are plagued with corruption, poor management, illiteracy and poverty but who else is not? What we have is what America had a few hundred years back or Israel has today...A passion to be recognized and honored...Despite our ills, if we keep this urge alive, try to improve upon our strengths, reduce our malaise such as corruption and believe in democracy as system which slowly but surely empowers masses thereby weeding out what is bad....we may one day be the new power to reckon...Only us have what it took many other great nations to become great...Courage, Vision and Strategy
I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day and we hit upon a strange note...He said and I quote "We were always small and poor...Yet it was us to whom USA has always turned for help in all past 60 years, even till now...yet it is us to whom china turned when its survival was at stake....yet it was us to whom Russia turned when it needed an honorable exit...and yet it is us to whom every nation in the world turns when in crisis whether it be Iran, Saudia, Great Britain or even Israel". Why us if we are really that miserable, corrupt, poor piece of land with no potential? It is time to leave despondency and hopelessness and believe in ourselves...aptly called "The Game Changer"

Guernica / Pepe Escobar: China’s Pipelineistan “War”: Anteing Up, Betting, and Bluffing in the New Great Game

This was all that is about good in us...Tomorrow's blog entry, again from Guernica is about a sad aspect of our daily lives, The "Missing People of Pakistan"...Keep reading