Regards,
Ammar

“To unite, make aware, enlighten and empower the people of Pakistan by providing a strong platform to those who have a vision, and to those who wish to be guided, on the principles of Unity, Faith and Discipline.”

The PakMarkaz Network has over 30 authors who are all collectively known as the Ambassador’s of Truth. Visitors and readers may “Talk-Back” and express their views on all articles and content that appears on the website. The writers are students and graduates from leading universities of Pakistan who wish to bring about a positive change in the country and its people.

http://www.pakmarkaz.net

I must say, there has been an over-whelming response by people who wish to be heard and make a difference, and the voice of the people of Pakistan, from 1st January onwards, will be the PakMarkaz Network!

LONG LIVE PAKISTAN!

Wateen Telecom, an Abu Dhabi Group venture in Pakistan, launches its WiMAX and HFC services for the consumer markets today. The launch will allow Wateen customers to have voice, telephony and broadband internet.

Wateen Telecom has been working on establishing a wireless network infrastructure since early 2006, and installed the network in early 2007. Their WiMAX service is a major breakthrough in the Pakistani broadband market as it will be a fast and cost-effective alternative to existing broadband services.

The development of the network has been carried out by Motorola, and is the largest WiMAX network ever installed. The project is a milestone for both the companies, as well as the nation, as it is expected to herald a broadband revolution in Pakistan, catering to more than one million users.

Tariq Malik, CEO, Wateen Telecom, “We are providing Pakistani consumers with complete communication solutions. Services such as high speed broadband internet and voice telephony will have a direct impact on the number of broadband users online. We are contributing to the growing market.”

Wateen Telecom’s launch is Pakistan’s first and the world’s largest WiMAX deployment. The team is confident of the market’s growth and of the long term benefits these services and solutions will bring to Pakistan.

For more details, please log onto www.wateen.com

I’m talking about arguably the best friend, the best brother I’ve found for myself ever, Mustafa Haroon aka “Mooooooosssssooooooooo”.

To him, every pixel has a meaning, to me, every meaning has a pixel, or every meaning can be expressed as a pixel on this darn screen in front of you! (lame, haan?) =P

Starting at 8.30 in the morning just as we enter the main university gate to 4.45 in the evening when everyone left. The two of us stayed together all day, except for class timings. Sitting in a computer lab or at the Dhaaba.

It started off 2 and a half years back with interface, when Mustafa (popularly known as “Active” or “Active X”) and me met. As team members of Interface, a student society at FAST-NU!

I can’t find the right words to express how I feel for him and how much I respect him. I had this post in mind for around two weeks. I could never find the right words, but here I am with an attempt, as lame as it may be!

I remember sitting late in the night, watching him do the Graduate Profile stuff (putting it online). Driving 400 km’s with him during PROCOM, very early in the morning, in the day and very late in the night…

Trust me, he is the only person who knows anything and everything about me. My grudges and my crushes. Social issues, study issues and whatever it may be! I have always found myself able to say it to him.

At FAST, I would regard him as one of the pillars to have supported me, pushed me and helped me make it to success!

People think keeping nicks like “Am” on an instant messenger or writing “-a” in my email signature is copying. No it’s not! It’s my way of giving someone respect. It is my way of keeping a legend alive at FAST even after he has graduated, and I would continue do so.

Six months late does not make you inferior, in fact, the curriculum never is a real picture of what a person is capable of! I know he’ll be the best as he steps into the software industry in a couple of weeks time!

It’s gonna be tough spending time on campus mussu – if you’re reading this – You can be sure you’ll be missed at FAST!

For the rest of you, read his blog at: http://axdimensions.wordpress.com

And to all of those who want to know, the 360 in Ammar360.com comes from Mustafa! His idea, his imagination!

I wish you all the best for the future Mustafa. You’re more than a brother to me! Let your busy schedules after grabbing your degree not forget me! May Allah bless you!

PS: Nothing, absolutely nothing in this text is exaggerated.

The US and Israel have yet to retract their claws when it comes to Iran. The recently published US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) clearly states Tehran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons programme, which logically should dampen fears.

But instead of drawing comfort from the findings of 16 US intelligence agencies, George W. Bush and Ehud Olmert are out there hyping up a non-existent threat, while their sycophants work hard at blowing as many holes in the NIE as they can.

US President George W. Bush’s skewed logic goes like this. According to the NIE, in 2003, Iran abandoned a covert nuclear programme, which it could decide to reconstitute at any time. Therefore, he says, Iran remains a danger to the world.

He also stated that at the time he made his ‘third world war’ speech he was in the dark as to the NIE’s conclusions. “Nobody told me,” he said with a straight face.

Few are biting, especially since the veteran investigate reporter Seymour Hersh reported in July last year that “American and European intelligence agencies have not found specific evidence of clandestine activities or hidden facilities” in Iran.

Then, in November 2006, Hersh announced on CNN that his sources had told him about a classified draft CIA assessment that arrived at the same conclusion. Is it conceivable that a reporter was in possession of the facts, while the US president was kept out of the loop?

Hersh insists the intelligence “has been circulating inside this government at the highest levels for the last year and probably longer”.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is similarly in denial. A nuke-free Iran was not what he wanted to hear when he, like Bush, has been pushing China, Russia and Western allies to ratchet-up anti-Iranian UN sanctions.

Moreover, in the event Israel harboured plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, in the absence of a nuclear smoking gun, these will now have to be shelved.

Israel will work together with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to expose the Iranian military’s plan to develop a nuclear weapon, he said. Problem is IAEA Director-General Mohammad Al Baradei, head of the nuclear watchdog, has consistently rebutted accusations that Tehran has any such intentions and been heavily criticised by the US for so doing.

In Iran, the intelligence estimate was a cause for celebration. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rightly felt vindicated, while heads of state in this part of the world were relieved.

Dispatched

But it wasn’t long before the US Defence Minister Bob Gates was dispatched to the region to stir the anti-Iranian pot before America’s allies became complacent. He was no doubt concerned that for the first time Gulf States had invited Iran to attend a regional security conference.

In the event, Iran passed up the invitation but despite the absence of this major player, GCC countries signalled their wish for dialogue with Iran and rejected any military option.

“We want the military factor to be eliminated,” said the GCC’s Secretary-General Abdulrahman Al Attiyah. “What we care for in the GCC is finding solutions that enhance security and stability and we believe in dialogue as a way to solve this crisis.”

Iraqi leaders who attended the summit were like-minded, urging the US to engage with Tehran else risk regional insecurity. The Iraqi Vice-President Tariq Al Hashemi said he believes Iran holds the key for stability and peace within the region and stressed that “the nuclear issue should be sorted out in round-table discussions”.

Let’s be realistic for a moment. Iran hasn’t invaded another country for hundreds of years, hasn’t been belligerent towards its neighbours and, according to the Western intelligence community, doesn’t have a nuclear weapons programme. So where exactly is the threat?

While it’s true that Ahmadinejad has made unfriendly noises towards Israel even if tomorrow a bundle of nuclear warheads descended like manna from the skies, he could hardly use them against the Jewish state without harming Palestinians, Syrians, Egyptians and Lebanese.

Surely, the real and present danger to this region is Israel, which, unlike Iran, possesses an actual nuclear arsenal, is occupying Arab land and launched a war against a neighbour just last year, resulting in thousands of dead and maimed Lebanese civilians.

Of course, Gates would beg to differ. When asked about Israel’s nukes he said they posed no threat to the region. Oh well. At least he provided the delegates with a good chuckle by all accounts.

Whatever the US and Israel are up to it’s clear their leaders are being duplicitous. They’re determined to go after Iran whatever the circumstances and whatever the consequences to people here.

Only when this region stands together and speaks forcibly with one voice will foreigners, hungry for natural resources and power, be kept at bay.

If the unthinkable were to happen the entire world would be negatively affected but the biggest losers in terms of victims and devastated economies would be the countries in our neck of the woods. It mustn’t be allowed to happen.

Courtesy: Gulf News ( http://www.gulfnews.com )

Ammar-3Sixty : http://www.ammar360.com

What’s it about? Its about How I see the World, and how the world see’s me!

I hope you all like the new name, the new look and the new theme behind this little website!

Best of Luck! To All of You!

IPv6 is short for “Internet Protocol Version 6″. IPv6 is the “next generation” protocol designed to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 (“IPv4″).

Most of today’s internet uses IPv4, which is now nearly twenty years old. IPv4 has been remarkably resilient in spite of its age, but it is beginning to have problems. Most importantly, there is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses, which are needed by all new machines added to the Internet.

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer for packet-switched internetworks. It is designated as the successor of IPv4, the current version of the Internet Protocol, for general use on the Internet.

IPv6 fixes a number of problems in IPv4, such as the limited number of available IPv4 addresses. It also adds many improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network auto-configuration. IPv6 is expected to gradually replace IPv4, with the two coexisting for a number of years during a transition period.

IPv6 supports 2¹²⁸ (about 3.4×10³⁸) addresses, or approximately 5×10²⁸ addresses for each of the roughly 6.5 billion people alive today. In a different perspective, this is 2⁵² addresses for every star in the known universe – a million times as many addresses per star than IPv4 supported for our single planet. These examples, however, have an underlying and incorrect assumption that the goal of IPv6 is the dense assignment of unique addresses to every possible entity.

A lot of information is available at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

I heartily congratulate the university administration, the faculty and all my fellow engineering students!

HERE is the official report (meeting minutes) of the PEC meeting that accepted NUCES-FAST engineering programs.

Those who have graduated can also apply for PEC membership now

A toy has always been very delicate, it breaks if it does not get its due share of care. I have found myself in such a situation a few times when I preferred to let go of a toy, avoiding a find and damage to the toy!

It seems as if some people never grow up! There are people who can go up to the extent of breaking a country but not letting go of their toy!

A fine Saturday evening when a nation struggling with rags of democracy came to a grinding halt! Yes – 3rd November, 2007. Proclamation of emergency by the Chief of Army Staff, General Pervez Musharraf! The toy held close to his chest!

Governments have NEVER been known to declare a state of emergency against their own self! This is perhaps the first time in history when a government has proclaimed a state of emergency to stay in power. We’ve seen emergencies imposed to transfer power from one dictator to another, but this is unique – one of its kind – that has made Pakistan a laughing stock across the globe!

It is perhaps because with both major political parties suppressed and out of the picture, the mediocre and not-so-popular politicians got a taste of governance! The power that comes with it and the luxuries! How could they ever imagine going back to the old days? Taking such a step was on the cards for quite some time, it was only a matter of time. But everyone deserves a chance, EXCEPT THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN!

The TOY is our country and the spoilt children are our leaders, who have “LED” us to a disastrous situation amicably! With authority and control! They would rather break the toy than have someone else lay his or her hands on it!

This is the only country in the world where leaders are those who suppress and oppress, who have gun-power to keep man-power by their side! It is ironic to see that all the top decision makers are people who have been elected from remote areas comprising mostly of an illiterate population, because of their local influence – by hook or crook! You hardly find decent people up there, who have been elected by moderate, enlightened people. And they set policies of enlightened moderation! What a cruel joke!

God Bless Pakistan, God save Pakistan!

=’)