Serena Williams Should have Punished Harder

US Open 2009 women's semi-final. Tennis rules need to be altered. Why? Consider this, if you hit your own racket on the ground, and break it, you get a warning (code conduct violation). If you yell and threaten a line umpire, you also get a warning... what? I think the later is more serious, and should get higher penalty.

We all lose temper while playing, agreed, its part of sports. But, first of all, yelling and threatning an umpire should get a higher penalty (as in soccer, a referee can show you a red card, end of game for you). However, the biggest disappointment, rather shame, was on Serena's part, when she did not apologize during the after-match press conference. She didn't think that she had over-reacted. I was furious. She showed that well, she might have great skills to play tennis, but does not have enough character to be called a great player.

BTW, the argument that a foot fault should not be called in the first place is completely absurd, reminds me of "a bad workman quarrels with his tools".

Is Pakistan not a victim of terrorism?

*Recent updates to this are at the end of the post*.

Apparently, no. If you listen to western media, there is a lot of talk about countries like US, UK, Spain etc being victims of terrorism. Lately, India has also been included in the group. Agreed, thousands of civilians have lost their lives in terrorist attacks in US (9/11), UK (7/7), and India (Mumbai). But, how about the thousands who have died in Pakistan only in terrorist attacks since 9/11? Does the media not count those attacks as terrorist attacks? I guess these attacks are considered a day-to-day matter?

To quote from one of the related articles: "THE statistics are numbing and mind-boggling and should make any Pakistani sit up: in 2008 the country saw 2,148 terrorist attacks, which caused 6,825 casualties — 2,267 of them fatal. Suicide attacks alone killed nearly 1,000 people — 967 to be precise — and wounded or maimed for life over 2,000."

In 2007, 1,503 terrorist attacks and clashes, including all the suicide attacks, target killings and assassinations, resulted in 3,448 casualties and 5,353 injuries, according to this wikipedia article (it refers to various sources).

The world may have a problem with Pakistani government, ISI, or Taliban, but, I think Pakistani people need the most sympathy and support on terrorism. I think Pakistan is the biggest victim.

Latest update: One news story puts the total death toll in "war against terrorism in Pakistan" to be about 30,000. That's a really big number; Pakistan has not lost so many lives even in the two full-scale wars against India fought in 1965 and 1971.

update: Another news story on terrorist incidents in Pakistan.

The Frugal Traveler of NYTimes

Probably, one of the luckiest men on the planet; gets to see a lot of places, on somebody else's pocket (of course, NYTimes). This summer, he is off to Europe. His blog is quite interesting, and a nice time-pass, while you learn a lot of new things about interesting places in the world. Here it is for this summer:
The Grand Tour (of Europe)
Last summer, he went on a road-trip across US. That was also quite nice. Here is the link:
American Road Trip

Unintentional error from Al-Qaida

In a news report published today, Al-Qaida's No 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, said that Al-Qaida is not killing innocent people. "If there is any innocent who was killed in the mujahedeen's operations, then it was either an unintentional error or out of necessity".
What a shame? Thousands of civilian citizens have died since at least 09/11 in suicide bombings and other attacks all over the world, including muslim countries, like pakistan. Is that an unintentional error? Who is innocent? What are they who have died in suicide bombings in pakistan (or even for that matter, in US)? Are they not innocent? Can a sane person does all this in the name of God?

Of the Two Evils -- Pakistan's Election

So, the verdict is out. The king's party (PML-Q) backed by Musharraf (even till the last time) was badly defeated. Even the party's president and some other senior members were defeated in their respective strongholds. Benazir Bhutto's party (PPP) won a clear lead, which does not come as a surprise, since it is one of Pakistan's most prominent party, and was destined to get more votes after Bhutto's assassination.

A bit surprising thing, however, was unexpectedly better performance of Nawaz Sharif's party (PML-N), especially in Punjab. Recall that Sharif is a very vocal supporter of reinstatement of pre-emergency Nov 3 judiciary. PPP's stand is not very clear on judiciary issue, but, considering that PML-N won a major vote by claiming that they will reinstate the judiciary, I think even PPP would have to consider it. PPP would also have to consider it in some way or the other in order to form a coalition government. Other than that, both majority parties agree on reinstating 1973 constitution and lifting curbs on media (both of which are very good steps).

But, then it creates a problem for Pervez Musharraf, who has categorically said that there is no possibility of reinstatement of judiciary. I think Musharraf would agree to all other demands, but, not the judiciary, because if he does, all the previous cases of his eligibility as president would reopen, and as a result, he is definitely going to be ousted, even impeached too.

So, I think the best possible solution is that Musharraf resigns with honor, saying that he accepts people's verdict. Obviously the vote was not about Musharraf. But it said enough that people are not happy with his policies, and want opposition to form the government and repeal all the illegal and unpopular actions. I think even that will improve his rock-bottom image. At least, I would appreciate that, since it is the best logical solution. Otherwise, there is only more instability and chaos in country, and more protests, violence etc. I think no body in his right mind would still want Musharraf as head of state (except american administration, which has always supported dictators in other countries for their own good).

I think the new government should also close the political cell of ISI, and take some measures in order to stop future army interventions in politics. The media and judiciary should be completely free, handle the terrorism problem effectively (considering it as pakistan's problem, not a US or world's problem), and we are all set to go. But, somebody please tells Musharraf that people don't want him.

There is this widespread notion (especially among the educated) that even democracy has not done anything good to Pakistan, so we should have Musharraf as an autocratic ruler. But, I would quote a few sentences from Cowajee's article (he borrowed it from Basil Henry Liddell Hart's Why Don’t We Learn from History?):

"We learn from history that democracy has commonly put a premium on conventionality. By its nature, it prefers those who keep step with the slowest march of thought and frowns on those who may disturb the ‘conspiracy for mutual inefficiency’. Thereby, this system of government tends to result in the triumph of mediocrity — and entails the exclusion of first-rate ability, if this is combined with honesty. But the alternative to it, despotism, almost always inevitably means the triumph of stupidity. And of the two evils, the former is the less."

Super Bowl Ads

The best entertainment on TV is funny ads, and Super Bowl ads have been up to the standard as always. Here you can watch ads that were played during past two decades (plus this year's too).

Firefox Add-ons and Extensions

I am sure about firefox web browser being the most used program for many computer users. I spend a lot of time on firefox (basically whenever I am out of coding). So, what I like is to customize it to my taste and necessity. I am sure you know of Firefox Add-ons too.

If you were looking for something, and could not find it through google search, here are two lists of (almost all) useful add-ons.

I want a Firefox Extension to ... 200+ extremely useful firefox extensions that save time and effort.
and
Best Firefox Extensions

I use quite of them, especially Mouse Gestures, ForecastFox, Foxmarks, Dictionary search, PDF Download (very useful), Browster (preview) etc. I used to had a lot of them, but then I started having problems with Firefox. It was slowed down considerably, and I could not even type the search pattern in toolbar. I think (if I remember it correctly), those extensions (or add-ons) were related to tabs. Greasemonkey extension also gave me trouble, but since I don't do any web scripting, I uninstalled it. So, I would say that install them one by one (the ones you really think you need), and see if its affecting your usual browsing experience.

The one extension I didn't see in these links was Google Notebook add-on. You may find it useful too. Also, some extensions are out-dated, like, SpellBound, and these features are now part of browser itself. Few weeks back, I used (much-hyped about) Firefox 3 beta, and it has also incorporated more of the features, which previously extensions used to provide, e.g. enhanced bookmarking, and better Download manager.

Happy browsing, with firefox...

Hacking and Tweaking Firefox -- For Your Own Good

Here are two articles from ComputerWorld:

- Hacking Firefox: The secrets of about:config

I liked the two tricks explained over there, which tells you how to size the tab button width, so that more tabs can squeeze into your tab bar (would be useful when number of tabs go into 30's, but then, won't be useful if they are 109-:)), and how to just select a word, and not the whitespace after that

- 15 must-have Firefox tricks

The useful trick was how to build your own search engine, and how to use keywords for searches from websites that don't have search engines for Firefox. I have used that feature, and it certainly helps (e.g, I use a tool called Pin, and whenever I have to search for some API function call in its manual page while I am online, I just have to type 'pin serarch-term' in the address bar, and there you go). The other trick that I use frequently (described in the above article) is to use keywords for opening bookmarked web pages, e.g. I have to just type 'patt' in the address bar, when I actually intend to go to my advisor's home page, http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~patt/ . Useful, haan...

Happy browsing with firefox ...

p.s.: Don't forget to read the comments on these articles, because you could get a useful tip like pressing 'alt+enter' for viewing search results in a new tab, and save yourself from doing complicated things in about:config ...

More on (new) Yahoo! Mail...

As I am a big fan of convenience, I would like to share some tricks and tips that I commonly use on Yahoo! Mail. I am sure it will make your life way easier, and enhance your mail experience. In summary, they have a very desktop email kind of a look now...

- Shortcuts: The first thing first: Here is the list of all the shortcuts. I still could not find the shortcut for attaching files, but hopefully it will come soon... (or if you know that, please let me know)

- Sorting: (Its pretty obvious, but still) You can sort your mails in any folder by from, subject, date, size, attachment size, flagged status etc. This is pretty powerful, e.g., if you are trying to find a certain thing (but not sure as to use search), or read/see all the emails, from a particular person, then just click on any of the emails by that person, and then click on the "from" tab at the top. Emails will be sorted, and you will be at the right place too.

- Search: This is also a very desirable feature, if you know how to use it smartly. Look here for all the things that you wanted to know about search in Yahoo! Mail. E.g., now you can specify modifiers within your search terms, and it will search accordingly (e.g. subject:keyword, would search for keyword only in subject of emails). Also, there is a new tab on extreme right that comes with search results, with the help of which you can narrow down your results. Here is the general article about search...

In case you are wondering what would be an ultimate email client, google Mutt ...

p.s.: You can add events etc to your yahoo calendar automatically from within the emails. (plus don't forget to notice that your current calendar items are always shown at the bottom of page)...

Choice Overload (or The Paradox of Choice)

(Excerpt taken from this article ...)

“When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire too Much of a Good Thing?” Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 995-1006. (2000).

This paper explored the phenomena of “choice overload.” Here is what they did.

They created two displays of gourmet jams. One display had 24 jars. The other had 6. Each display invited people to try the jams and offered them a discount coupon to buy the jam. They alternated these displays in a grocery store and tracked how many people passed the displays, how many people stopped and sampled the jams, and how many subsequently used the offered coupon to buy the jam.

The results were surprising.

• 24 jar display: 60% of the people passing the display sampled the jam, 3% purchased jam.
• 6 jar display: 40% of the people passing the display sampled the jam, 30% purchased jam.

The larger display was better at getting people’s attention. But the number of choices overwhelmed them and they just walked away with out deciding to purchase a jam. In other words, if the goal is to attract consumers, less is more. Too much choice is demotivating. Admittedly, selecting a gourmet jam is insignificant. Maybe for more important issues, “choice overload” is not relevant? The authors of this paper, however, went on to consider more important choices such as 401K plans, and once again, a clear choice overload effect was found. Choice overload is real. When people are faced with too many choices, the natural tendency is to “not make a choice” and just walk away (probably in frustration).

--- My thoughts: I agree to the results of this experiment...
It's more interesting than it looks like here. Here is one of the Google TechTalks on the same topic (with lots of interesting real-world stories) from a well-reputed scientist in the field. (caution: it's a 1 hour video, but it's worth listening to)