اردوویب کو خیرباد

آج سے سات سال پہلے کی بات ہے جب کچھ دوستوں کے ساتھ مل کر اردو میں بلاگ اور انٹرنیٹ کے بارے میں کچھ کام کرنے کا سوچا تھا۔ پھر جون 2005 میں اس کام کے لئے علیحدہ ڈومین urduweb.org لے لی۔

ان سات سالوں میں اردوویب سے کبھی زیادہ کبھی کم واسطہ رہا۔ جب وقت کے ساتھ میری مصروفیات بڑھ گئیں تو بھی اردوویب پھلتا پھولتا رہا۔

وقت گزرنے ساتھ زیادہ اردوویب نے انٹرنیٹ کی اردو دنیا کو بدل کے رکھ دیا وہاں اردو محفل پر ایک کمیونٹی بھی قائم ہوتی گئی۔

وقت گزرنے کا پتہ ہی نہ چلا مگر میرا یہ احساس بڑھتا گیا کہ میں اس اردوویب کمیونٹی میں سے نہیں ہوں۔ صرف یہ بات نہیں کہ سیاست اور مذہب وغیرہ پر مجھے اکثر ارکان محفل اور اردو بلاگرز سے اختلاف تھا بلکہ ہماری دنیا ہی الگ الگ تھی اور ہم ایک دوسرے کو سمجھنے سے قصر تھے۔

اگر میں اس کمیونٹی کا حصہ ہی نہیں ہوں تو پھر مجھے اردو محفل اور اردوویب پر رہنے کا کوئی جواز نظر نہیں آتا۔ میری اور بھی کافی مصروفیات ہیں جیسے ہڑپہ آبائی پراجیکٹ جن پر میں اپنا وقت بہتر طور پر استعمال کر سکتا ہوں۔

لہذا میں اردوویب اور اردو محفل کو خدا حافظ کہہ رہا ہوں۔

اردوویب کے لئے میری دعا ہے کہ وہ خوب سے خوب تر ہو اور انٹرنیٹ اور انفارمیشن ٹیکنالوجی میں اردو عام کرنے میں کامیاب ہو۔

میں خاص طور پر نبیل کا شکریہ ادا کرنا چاہوں گا جس نے نہ صرف اردوویب کو کامیاب بنانے کے لئے کافی محنت کی بلکہ مجھے بھی سات سال خندہ پیشانی سے برداشت کیا۔

MLK Historic Site

Recently, my daughter suggested we visit Martin Luther King Jr Historic Site. Here are a few pictures from our visit.

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Skiing

I took Michelle skiing for the first time in late January. Living in the South, the closest somewhat decent option was in West Virginia. So we drove 7 hours to Winterplace.

Despite the warm weather, the conditions were decent enough. We had a lot of fun. Michelle loved it and is a better skier than I am now.

Here are some photographs from my iPhone.

I didn’t take many pictures as I was trying to stay on my skis.

Equality, Shmequality

Rick Santorum had this to say a few days ago:

“Where do you think the concept of equality comes from?” Santorum said on the campaign trail last Friday (Jan. 20). “It doesn’t come from Islam. It doesn’t come from the East and Eastern religions. It comes from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

This resulted in the mouthpiece of the Hindu American Foundation calling Santorum’s comments bigotry.

Now I am no fan of Santorum (link NSFW), but is equality really such an important concept in Hinduism? Do Dalits and Brahmins drink wine from the same cup? Do the Hindu religious texts and figures teach Brahmins and Shudras to marry each other?

Jains, Sikhs, Muslims and Buddhists were also outraged according to the article.

Does religion really teach equality of all? Seems to me that all these religious spokesmen doth protest too much. Their religions preach equality. Except when they don’t (which is often).

Zack Ajmal Phased Genome

A few months ago, I made my DNA genotyping results from 23andme public.

Since I got results for both my parents as well, I have now used BEAGLE to phase my genetic data. In simple words, I have been able to separate the contribution of my Dad and my Mom on my DNA.

I am making my phased genome public too. It’s in Plink format.

I haven’t made much use of the phased genome yet. So if you have any ideas about what can be done with a phased genome, please let me know.

I have also pledged to make my full sequenced genome public when genome sequencing becomes cheaper and I get it done.

New Orleans

We visited New Orleans for the Christmas holidays. Here are some photos.

Bicycling on Alpharetta Greenway

Yesterday, the weather was nice. So we loaded up our bikes on the car and headed to the Big Creek Greenway.

Michelle and I rode our bikes for about an hour. Here’s the trail map.

Elevation Profile
Alpharetta Big Creek Greenway

The trail was crowded and it was a lot of fun.

Seventeen and Forty-One

This month we celebrated 17 years of our marriage. It’s been a long, great time.

Also last week I turned 41. For my birthday, Amber and Michelle got me a bicycle, a Cannondale Quick 5 hybrid.

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And here I am, a long long time ago.
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Computer Upgrade

Four years ago, I built my desktop computer. Now it was getting a bit long in the tooth, so I decided to upgrade some of its parts.

  1. Motherboard: From Abit IP35E to Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
  2. Processor: From Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 to Intel Core i7-2600
  3. Memory: From 2x1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 to 2x4GB PC3-14900 DDR3
  4. DVD Drive: From PATA to a SATA DVD Writer

The computer’s now fast and powerful. My Harappa Ancestry Project analyses run much faster than before.

Ubuntu had no trouble running after the change. However, Windows XP refused to boot and I have to do a reinstall.

Smoky Mountains

Fall is the best season to go camping and hiking. And I love the fall colors you can see in the mountains. So once again we headed to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a couple of weeks ago for some camping, riding, hiking and driving.

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We had three black bear sightings in the smokies this time.

Here’s the trail to Laurel Falls.

Elevation Profile
Tracklog

Here’s the trail to the observation tower at the top of Clingman’s Dome which gives a nice view around.

Elevation Profile
Tracklog

The hike from Clingman’s Dome to Andrews Bald was great and the views from a bald are always the best.

Elevation Profile
Tracklog