Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog

I am weighing how honest is htis person.. :) hey, no harm in visiting his blog.. after all he is senior guy at SUN

Raise me up, push me down...

Almost every company tries to make a formal system for employees promotion.. Right!! But one question that bothers my mind more frequently then not: you can raise someone up and push someone down using the same system :)

If it is said that one can move up the ladder if he will "do well.. now to do well you have certain parameters (for example, rapport with peers, work attitude, flexibility, punctuality, discipline etc) in which you have to show that you have reached some level. Now the problem, someone has done very well in productivity but he has not attained good points in lets say discipline.. Now those who are higher up can raise him by over emphasizing his productivity Oh! he is the winner, just look at his contribution in last quarter or else you can discriminate him badly His discipline has an overall bad impact on his team's efficiency.. Higher up, we need even more discipline and we can not afford to try him at that level without him first showing some more discipline. So i don't consider him as a candidate for this promotion at all

I was wondering how we can have a system which is comfortable to employees. After all these systems are made to motivate the employees, Aren’t they?
On this very topic!!! Still thinking, i am. :)

If you are looking for some good pointer on office politics try this. The Protocol Of Office Politics

Sketch in Middle

Why we do sketching? This is an important question that has started bothering me since one of the discussion I had on it. Is sketching a tool for research was another question? I got some clues from one paper: Design Oriented HCI.

What I understood (from what I read from that paper and the MID book) is: sketch falls in between if on left we have vision/idea and on right we have realization/ (external) representation. So, sketch is used to translate left-to-right and interestingly, also right-to-left. This indeed is an important thing when designing.

Rest, I still am interested in perusing if sketching itself is research or not.

Designe Oriented HCI

What do Prototypes Prototype?

What do Prototypes Prototype?

I still have to read the above mentioned paper but i read soemthing very simillar in MID textbook.. and

Here is what I found very amazing, never realizing before that I too am victim of this. People start evaluating the prototypes rather then a particular aspect that prototype is made for. Prototype should only be taken consciously as help in evaluating a particular aspect.

Tera Saath.. (Translation)

Hey. i know my translation sucks so if anyone wishes to correct any part then please do so, i will be greatful..

chal raha mei us rah pei, chor gayei tum jahan humei
(I am) walking on that very road, where you left me alone

Ankhein Kion yeah bhar gayee, Zindagi jaisay thum gayee
(my) eyes why are they filled (with tears), my life it's as if been put to stand still

Rothei kub tum, Na challa pata, hoyee khabar, hogayei jub gum
When did you parted (or got upset), i didn't come to know, when i came to know, it was when you were gone

Door hei woh, ub manzil meri, pehlei, payee jo kabhi
Far away, is my destination now, which earlier, i did had once

har ghari teri aas thee, baqui jub tak saans thee
Every click i wished for you, as long as i was breething

MUSIC…

Dil ko merei, yeah aas kion dikhai,
To my heart, why you gave the hope

Deni thee humko, jub aap nei judai
when you were to give parting

kion dikhai, jub thee hi judai
why you gave, when it was only parting

Ub aur kuch naheen hei, aur hum hum naheen hei..
Now there is nothing left, and I am not myself anymore

Hein wohi din, hei wohi raat, sub kuch yahaan, par tera saath
Its same day, Its same night, everything is same, but your companionship (or company)

Repeat (lastline)

MUSIC

Asmaan yeah, ronei laga, sub kuh dhundla sa honei laga
This Sky, has started crying, everything has started fading

Tu jo naheen, to kuch bhi naheen
When you are nomore (with me), then there is nothing (which matters)

Torei jo woh wadei, totei phir sub supnay
WHen promiss were broken, all dreams got shattered

Mushkil hogaya jeena, rothei jub yaar upnay
Living became hard, when my friend parted away(or when stopped talking)

jal raha hei meraa jeevan, katei yeah tanha pan
My life is burning, and this lonliness is byting me

yeah meri zaindagi naheen, yeah hei bus eik be bassi
this is not my life (anymore), this is only a powerless (or lifeless)

MUSIC..

Hein wohi din, hei wohi raat, sub kuch yahaan, par tera saath
Its same day, Its same night, everything is same, but your companionship (or company)

Life By Shaghab (Edited)

Life By Shaghab

Lost life was found in the ashes
Dearest story died in bitter clashes
Darkness fell when i lost flashes
Soul went down, full of gashes

Night was the answer to the white
Like black a solution to the light
Darkness fell when pride had smashes
When trust fell from the wished height

I was thinking if I had found you
But still I see is nothing but blue
Darkness fell when star met clashes
I died with poise, coz I had to

No-nonsense email client

I intend to develop an email client having standard features with greater usability for handling information overload. The main design goal will be around the rule “Read what you want”. So it will primarily be a research based project where feedback from different reader types will be taken in account and an client will be developed that is not only futuristic but more important usable. Emphasis will primarily be on what to display and how to display. I don't know even a single email client who is even 50% usable when there are lots of unwanted emails are coming (i.e. spam and teasers). So instead of wasting my time on skimming through that turn out as spam i want to develop something that can help me in this regard. Earlier approach to this problem is to use spam filter but we human don't trust computer when it comes to filtering so i believe better idea is to do most of the filtering stuff manually but make it so transparent that no one feels any extra load in doing so. For example, instead of next we can have various next e.g. NEXT (Mark reader as trusted, Mark mail as Reply needed, etc).
As secondary defense against unwanted email client will support easy to develop SPAM filters. But that is not primary focus at least in version 1.0. Version 1.0 is all about making it easy for you to read what you want. Think about a scenario where you receive an email form a specific sender who is most important you. Traditionally you get color highlighting option or Flag how about remembering who is important to you and just always display unread email form them on top of everything else. This is just an example, all i want to do is to reinvent email client when now we know what the issues with their usability are. That is what I hope. Its usability which is important.

Graphics MS

i want to leave ISE for graphics.. Ali want to leave EMIS for graphics.. omar want to leave wireless for SOC. and now this guy he comes from LTH and says he want to leabe SOC for EMIS..

Why cann't we be always happy...

stupid bugs

on his bed some guest is sleeping and i am still awake after fighting major part of the night with stupid bugs..

the one that was surely the most stupid of all was passing an object to a vector and then using the object somewhere else where its value was changing.. It took some time and some luck to actually figure out why the values in vector were getting changed.. now don't blame us we are awake for like 20+ hours..

He Rules

May be he don’t like his comments to be published online with name.. So I am hiding his name but this professor for sure rules.. His answers are simple and to the point.. I hope I can become that clear minded. Amin

QuestionMy perception is this that all the courses in Swedish universities are offered based on the feedback from industry. So i was wondering what was the actual motivation behind starting "Interactive System Engineering". Is Sweden looking for professionals in this area? If yes is it for some industry or research. AS far as I know Sweden is taking part in two of the "Disappearing-Computer" initiative. But I guess there should be more reasons then this to start an international program. I hope sir you can tell me something, which will be helpful in deciding my career.
Answerthe actual motivation is not direct demand from industry but our perception of future developments based upon our research experiences (as you have noted e.g. the disappearing computer research).

QuestionAlso, sir I had some other options available for studies. I have refused all of them apart from one which was TUCS (partially because of higher percentage of paid thesis grant + flexibility in coursework design).. But as far as I know KTH is higher ranked then TUCS and Interactive System Engineering is more futuristic than most of the software engineering fields). But what I don't know is the standing of KTH in Computer sciences in Nordic region. Sir I hope you can give me some personal opinion on research and education standard of KTH vs. others.
AnswerMy personal opinion is that KTH has an excellent research and education record which is in the top league in Europe, and probably also worldwide


QuestionLast but not least, Sir what you think is better keeping in future IT demands. Specific MS or General MS. I have seen that most if the USA MS are very general as compared to EU. And Swedish MS are very specific.
AnswerKTH offers both general and specific M Sc courses but I feel that the specific ones are the best bet for the time being as there are more than enough general educated scholars around

Human Computer Interaction Resources

Well well well! they have companies, research places and lots of other interesting bookmarks.

Beginner's Corner - In-Circuit-Emulators

I was searching nokia site for job opportunities... And then I came to know about this thing.. In-Circuit... So all out there who are interested in telecom industry from testing point of view here is something you should look at... Especially for entry-level people.

Ubiquitous Computing: The New Industrial Challenge

At the time when i am about to leave Pakistan for studies in EU (Sweden or Finland), concluding remarks from this article were really motivating. :)

Ubiquitous Computing signals a new phase of the digital economy. It will create new markets for ICT products and services. Unlike some ICT markets, such as PC systems, Internet infrastructure and e-commerce where US firms are relatively dominant, European firms are in a strong position to contest these markets. Also, the gains from this new avenue are open to traditional industries as well as the high technology sectors.

Allah Hu Akbar

If you are looking for fitnas in Islam then here is a site which tell about different fitnas in Islam.. May Allah keep us all on straight path.

And dear reader! I am searching for an Islamic site which tells about the war that will take place between ?Hazrat Eesa (Christ) and Mal'oun Dajal (Anti-Christ)... So if you know any do add a comment. May Allah bless all those who are on right path and May Allah guide them all who are not. Ameen

MS.. related queries and their replies

EMAIL 1

I wrote:
More queries
1) KTH has good repute for its SOC but what about CS. How you rate it or what's their general repute.
2) I am under impression that in KTH programs are offered based on the feedback form industry otherwise they are offering it coz they have teachers available to do that. If the former is true then is it good idea to assume that they need interactive system engineers that is why they have started this program. This assumption will lead to conclusion that chances of getting jobs are there in Sweden (in CS).
3) How difficult are studies there. Is it humanly possible to get full GPA? Plus if one ends up in class top 5 will life will be easier for him in Sweden or not (for paid thesis and job)

A friend replied:
About the reputation of KTH in general, it is quite good. e.g. people have got admissions in Phd in top US schools like Texas A&M etc... the industry recognizes it quite well e.g. Like Philips, Nokia, Microsoft, IBM etc... so I guess this is not an issue...

About the job situation in Sweden it has been pretty bleak because of Ericsson. Ericsson has been their biggest tech employer and it has fired more than 10,000 ppl and because of this the chances are quite slim to hire foreigners especially if so many of their own people are unemployed (in case some jobs do open). This has been for the past two years. Now the situation has been improving although very slowly... cannot say any thing about it for the future.

Regarding feedback from the industry, the SOC program was started in 2000. The plan for SOC program originated around 1998-1999 and the first batch was inducted the next year. Ericsson was one of the major funders of the program and then it decided to pull back because of its own financial conditions so...the industry can change…

Coming to your specific question, I and some other students from Pakistan are under the impression that they have started these programs for two purposes.

One reason for starting these programs there were / are forecasts for growth in these areas in the future. There are many challenges in these areas which need to be solved through research.
So master thesis and then inducting best students out of those for a Phd enables them to continue their research.

The second reason is that the Sweden education system is designed in such a way that the department gets funding based on the number of students that pass a specific course.
……….. Again I cannot say that this is also the reason for starting the Interactive systems program or there is going to be some real demand in the near future.

…. I was lucky enough .. to get a paid thesis in ….. So if you have two plus years of solid experience, the industry will "generally" welcome you.
Regarding the grading system, it is tough but not impossible to get a full GPA. to make it easier, the Swedish and Finnish system both allow a student to repeat an exam as many times as he like to improve his grade even if he has an A-. This sounds easy and comforting but... I can assure that in practical this is not the case. Courses move at quite a brisk pace.

Thought of the day: Contentment and issue at hand:MS

Bunny asked me a question and I am wondering what would be the answer?

What makes me feel content... After saying lot of junk i admitted in the end that it is too early to for me to define what makes me feel content.. She left for her home after promising that she will be in Islamabad on 28th to attend my Walima.

I am still wondering about it.. Is it money? Is it doing something which other's can’t do.. ahh its childish.. May be I wanted to do something that would benefit others in my field. Am I that noble? J

I hope I will find answer to this within next 4-5 years.. I seriously wish that coz it will help me design my career path in better way.

And still the other question remains should I go for Ranking + futuristic program or else flexible program + funding opportunity..

What if I had no constraint of time and money... then probably KTH.. But funding option is always encouraging..

Probably I should look how good are research facilities at KTH... May be i should try contacting few PhDs there for paid research opportunities.. May be I should search job opportunities at industry.. I should search for some site which give career guidance.. Tell me about different fields... Or may be I should see the site which can tell future industry trend.. Will it be bioengineering that will rule or will it be ubiquitous..

I don’t know what I really want to do… and I don’t know how can I know this.. Where my thinking process should start from.. so that I can reach to a conclusion…

I do am interested in developing 3d games.. but still I have never tried writing even one program in 3d. Nor do I know exactly how many different career opportunities are there in that field.. I should search this as well….

Time to stop ….

conversation with Zahid.. some search bookmarks

Ahh i am still confused on what to do.. go for MS at KTH in interactive System Engineering or else TUCS where i can smell funding and flexibility in course selection... :(

Hope fully when i will visit following links in detail i may have more points in favour of KTH..

http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/bus_ind.html HCI in Business and Industry
http://choices.cs.uiuc.edu/gaia/html/videos.htm Active Spaces for ubiquitous computing
http://research.microsoft.com/easyliving/ Microsoft Easy Living

first blood!

I was wondering what was missing from internet... blogg!!! a natural way of writing what ever you want... :) I think Blogging will revolutionize the information exchange. I consider it as a public diary. Where I will write thoughts/ideas for others to see; and I wish that readers will educate me with their comments.