Zack

My name is Zakaria Ajmal. “Zakaria” is a biblical name and hence has different spellings and pronunciations in different languages. I don’t mind the different spellings that much, but to make it easy, I am usually known as Zack.

I am 40 years old and am originally from Pakistan where I was born and raised. I was living in Islamabad, the capital city, before coming to the US.

I came to the US 14 years ago for graduate school in Electrical and Computer Engineering (research interests: computer vision and graphics/animation, video and image analysis, telepresence, etc.) at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA.

Other than research, I like to camp and hike, travel and take photographs with my digital camera. I am also very much interested in science fiction, history, politics and international affairs.

I got married to Ambrin (nickname: Amber) on December 1, 1994. We have had a lot of fun together and plan to live together happily ever after.

On August 12, 2004, a cute Michelle was born to Amber and me. Nowadays, she is the center of our universe. She has a weblog of her own on which we post her photographs, video clips and milestones etc. If you would like to read her blog, please email me.

Places I have lived in

Wah Cantt., Pakistan (Dec 1970 – Jun 1976)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan (Jun 1976 – Nov 1976)
Tripoli, Libya (Nov 1976 – Jan 1983)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan (Sep 1982 – Oct 1984)
Wah Cantt., Pakistan (Oct 1984 – Nov 1994)
Islamabad, Pakistan (Aug 1994 – Sep 1997)
Atlanta, Georgia, USA (Sep 1997 – Mar 2007)
Piscataway, New Jersey, USA (June 1999 – Oct 2004)
Plantation, Florida, USA (May 2000 – Aug 2000)
Fremont, California, USA (May 2001 – Aug 2001)
Milton, Georgia, USA (Mar 2007 – Present)

Countries I have visited/lived in

Pakistan (Dec 1970 – Nov 1976, Sep 1982 – Sep 1997, Dec 2002, Dec 2005, Oct 2008, Oct 2010, Jun-Jul 2011)
Libya (Nov 1976 – Jan 1983)
Britain (May 1978)
Germany (Jun 1978)
Belgium (Jun 1978)
Netherlands (Jun 1978)
Saudi Arabia (Jun 1978, Jan 1983)
Turkey
Malaysia (Apr 1994)
South Africa (Dec 1996)
United States (Sep 1997 – Present)
Canada (Nov 1999, Mar 2005)
France (Jul–Aug 2002)
Switzerland (Jan 2006)
Bahamas (Mar 2009)
Italy (Jul 2009)
United Arab Emirates (Jun 2011)

Disclaimer
Please read the disclaimer.

اردوویب کو خیرباد

Posted by Zack on May 2, 2012 16 comments

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

Posted by Zack on April 19, 2012 No comments

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

Skiing

Posted by Zack on March 15, 2012 No comments

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.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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

Equality, Shmequality

Posted by Zack on January 30, 2012 3 comments

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

Posted by Zack on January 13, 2012 1 comment

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

Posted by Zack on January 9, 2012 2 comments

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

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[View with PicLens]

Bicycling on Alpharetta Greenway

Posted by Zack on December 19, 2011 No comments

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.

Alpharetta Big Creek Greenway

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

Seventeen and Forty-One

Posted by Zack on December 10, 2011 2 comments

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.

And here I am, a long long time ago.

Computer Upgrade

Posted by Zack on November 10, 2011 3 comments

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.

Motherboard: From Abit IP35E to Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3
Processor: From Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 to Intel Core i7-2600
Memory: From 2x1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 to 2x4GB PC3-14900 DDR3
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

Posted by Zack on November 1, 2011 No comments

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.