Hammad Bin Arif's Blog

کتنے شعر ہیں مٹائے لکھ کے اس خیال سے

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 09:57:00 +0000

کتنے شعر ہیں مٹائے لکھ کے اس خیال سے

سب شناسا ہو نہ جائیں اندرونِ حال سے

برق اور کیمیا کے ذہن میں وبال سے

ہم نے کر دئے کرشمے سوچ کے کمال سے

لاکھ صدیوں میں ملا ہے لاشعور کا شعور

سوچ باہر آرہی ہے ارتقائی جال سے

وہ ہی ختنے ، وہ ہی روزے، وہ ہی قربانی وہ حج

کچھ نیا آیا نہیں ہے پانچ ہزار سال سے

وہ ہی فتوے، وہ ڈراوے، وہ نصیحتیں، وہ درس

حرفِ آخر کو بچاتے ہیں نئے سوال سے

اتنے دل دکھا کے خود کو معاف کر سکو گے تم ؟

کچھ تو احتیاط برتو سچ کے استعمال سے

چاہے فردا کی فکر میں گم رہے حمادؔ پر

دوست، رشتے، شاعری، نکلے نہیں خیال سے

Project Online – What it does and doesn't do.

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:13:00 +0000

Though Project online is less than a year’s old offering by Microsoft and at the time of writing this , not yet launched in Australia, it is based on a proven Microsoft Project Server technology which has come a long way over last decade and has kept pace with demands of maturing PPM practice worldwide.

Being nascent in its cloud hosted variation, Microsoft Project Online has yet to re-factor some of its features to make the product more usable and valuable for its growing customer base.

Here is a list of differentiating features which still make Project 2013 on-premise more viable solution to decision makers who are looking to gain real value out of a PPM Investment.

Business Intelligence: SSRS + direct DB access is not supported with Project online. The alternative supported tool i.e. Excel + oData has some cool uses but its quite slow and doesn’t cover many key reporting scenarios like

a. Filtering data at query time based on user supplied parameters

b. Very limited time phased data available and no access to OLAP cubes.

c. Not optimized for PDF / Print output

d. Fetching cross project sites data is v. limited

Access to ULS Logs: The two most common error messages end users receive in Project interface are “Unknown error” and “Unexpected error”. In on-premises configuration, administrator can access ULS logs to troubleshoot the cause. In Project Online, you need to raise a support ticket to Microsoft

Controlled Patching: Project online is great because it always offers the latest software. This, however may not always be good as some times new code can change existing behaviour or worst yet, break working functionality with no advance warning. In on-premise environment, test environment can be used to control patching in planned manner.

Central Admin Access: Granular control over backing up and restoring project schedules, controlling refresh warning in excel data connections etc. are few of those settings which are essential yet being part of central admin, are available in on-premise version only.

EPMonDemand is an offering by EPM Partners (the company I work for) in Australia which offers best of both worlds by providing a cloud managed solution with flexibility & control of an on-premise solution. Having a successful track record of providing cloud hosted EPM solutions since Project server 2010, EPMOnDemand has tackled the typical challenges of multi-tenant environment by offering greater control over deployed solution based on customer needs.

Here is a full comparison list of features in Microsoft Project On-premises vs Project Online vs. EPMonDemand

Feature	Project Online	Project On premises	EPMonDemand
Administrative backup and restore for Projects (used to restore a slightly older version of a project without pulling a tape and impacting an entire organization)		X	X
Archival Environments to retain data		X	X
Multi-Dimensional Olap Cubes		X	X
Direct access to SQL Server Databases and OLAP Databases		X	X Greater flexibility for Reporting
Direct SQL Query Access to Project Server and SharePoint Databases		X	X
Team Foundation Server Connectivity (including 2012)		X	X Can be achieved with “YourCloud” offering.
Event Handlers can use both full trust event handlers and remote event receivers		X	X
Full access to PSI and CSOM		X	X
Access to ULS Logs		X	X
As a result of full access to the databases, PSI and CSOM there is more flexibility for Business Intelligence, Dashboards, and Reports		X	X
Recycling Bin for documents, projects, and sites	X	X	X
Project Web Applications (Add applications to PWA)	X	X	X
SharePoint Permission Mode or Project Server Permission Mode	X	X	X
SharePoint Designer for workflows	X	X	X
No database administration	X		X
Security handled by Provider	X
Latest and greatest service packs and cumulative updates	X		X Patches tested first in internal environment
No direct access to SQL Server and OLAP Databases (Reporting is done via OData)	X OData is not on par with direct data access
Access using CSOM (Note: PSI interfaces do not support O- Authentication)	X		X CSOM & PSI, both are supported.
Event Handlers require remote event receivers	X
Extensibility is accomplished via the use of the SharePoint Extensibility Model – (as a result there is no full-trust code)	X

Reference:

Online and On-Premises Solutions for Project Server 2013 (white paper)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn217893.aspx

What’s old in Project Server 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 06:23:00 +0000

[Classic Project Server functional limitations that prevail in 2013]

It seems Microsoft do listen to its customers feedback and have provided some great new features in Project 2013. These enhancements directly address most of the key limitations customers faced using Project Server 2010.

My favourite amongst these features is the ability to define Project Governance workflow in SharePoint designer 2013. Power View has a great WOW factor. True multi browser support is awesome and despite some limitations , the only practical issue I came across in my extensive (Ahem! 3 weeks ;) ) usage of Project Server 2013 on Google Chrome was that I couldn’t use Explorer view for my SharePoint libraries.

Other than that, ability to set baseline with in PWA, developer improvements (CSOM), mobile access views, oData feeds are all welcome additions.

But if you earn your bread by configuring and customizing Microsoft EPM (oh, I meant PPM) Solution like me, you would notice that some pain areas have survived and ‘successfully’ migrated to 2013 version. Here is a (not exhaustive by any means) list of such points.

PDP Infrastructure and Custom Fields

1- Project Fields Web part (now renamed to Basic info in 2013) gives severely limited options in customizing the look & feel of the form. This means that

a. You can’t change label of fields (and can’t rename system fields) without opting for JavaScript hacks or replace it altogether with InfoPath.

b. Hierarchical drop downs are not possible (e.g. Drop down for section changes its possible values based on what is selected in Drop down for Department).

c. Custom validation of fields is not possible without JavaScript trickery.

d. Can’t pre-populate fields based on some calculation and still leave them open for editing.

e. No attachment button. Would be great to attach related documents like business case on PDP itself.

f. No Resource picker control.

g. No checkboxes and hence can’t make ticking a check-box mandatory. Can’t make a flag field mandatory either. If you want your PM to fill a check-list, and mark all items as “Yes” before he can move to next stage, this is not possible without server side workflow validation. Though the good news is that developing such workflow is much easier now in 2013 than it was in 2010.

2- Security can’t be controlled on PDP Level (example scenario is where only PMO should see the budget information PDP or only PM should update the Status Updates PDP)

Governance / Workflow

3- Site Template and Plan template can’t be attached to EPT post-project creation. So you can’t decide if a project is going to be small/medium and or enterprise in planning phase and then attach the appropriate template in execution phase.

4- Change the Project Owner after project creation and any task assignment which was created prior (one frequent source is Project Plan Template) to that would still keep previous PM as Status Manager and that guy will keep receiving approval requests on that task.

Reporting

5- SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2012 is nearly identical to SSRS 2008. Whatever you dislike about 2008 is still there J one example is limited browser support. You have to spend 90% of time in completing last 10% of report formatting to make it export compatible. Can’t control much of the parameters look & feel or their conditional visibility. Old style VB for customization. No CSS/Java script Support. No event handling. Can’t show a page number other than in header/footer. Well! I forgot I was only giving one example.

6- Couldn’t show labels on any chart in PerformancePoint 2010. Can’t do that in PerformancePoint 2013 either. That’s btw true for Excel Power View 2013 as well but hay that’s a “new” issue so it doesn’t count.

Project Site Integration

7- Can’t calculate Project server Risk Indicator or Issue Indicator fields based on custom columns in Risk & Issue Lists in Project site. A corollary to that is that Risk/Issue Project site information can’t be shown in Project Center views.

8- Can’t show project fields in Project site or vice versa without unsupported solution starter components.

Scheduling in PWA

9- Its great to save baseline within PWA. Though I would like to assign partial resources to tasks as well. More details here http://blogs.office.com/b/project/archive/2013/05/29/differences-between-project-professional-and-project-online.aspx

Project Professional

10- Create whatever PDPs you want to create. Project professional doesn’t know about and won’t honour them, it will show all the fields in Project Information form whose behaviour is not dependent on workflow and are not multiline,

11- Has your PMO taken the permission of setting baseline away from you? Is your project running way behind schedule? Don’t worry, open the project in project professional and change the baseline values. Yes, you can change the baseline values without setting it again. Your Project status reports will look great and no one will know about it. Sshhh !!

Other

12-No mechanism to generate Auto Project ID

13-No intrinsic support in PWA for Program Management. Master Project and sub Project relationships can be defined in Project Professional which may not be the tool of choice for PMO.

14-New Project can’t be cloned from other Project.

Project Server 2013 – Reporting Story

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:51:00 +0000

Introduction

Tracking Project / Portfolio Progress and forecasting future performance are the cornerstones of all project management methodologies. While the reporting requirement itself is so common and generic in nature, yet every organization has some specific PM practices which demands unique reporting & that results in anywhere from little to very significant custom reports development in Project Server. Therefore, Microsoft Project Server has always provided reporting tools with rich capabilities not only to create and distribute Traditional or Analytical reports but also to facilitate power users to generate ad-hoc reports based on unplanned requirements.

The latest version of Project Server (i.e. 2013) has introduced some new reporting methods. In addition, reporting possibilities of Microsoft Hosted version of the project Server (i.e. Project Online via office 365) is not exactly same as its on-premise counterpart and hence it is essential to analyse, plan and architect reports according to its deployment scenario.

This article summarises the key reporting capabilities of Project Server 2013 for both on-premise and hosted solutions.

Data Access

Querying the reporting database

On-premise solutions have the capability of accessing the reporting data directly by querying the reporting database. This capability is not available in Hosted solutions. The 4 databases (draft, publishing, archiving & reporting) per project server 2010 instance have now been merged as single database per project server 2013 instance. However, reporting table names have not been changed and hence reports written against project server 2010 schema are compatible with Project Server 2013 as well.

oData

oData service exposes Project Server reporting data via web service interface. The query is passed via URL and result is returned as XML document which can then be consumed by Excel 2013 and other client side applications.

oData query syntax support REST and LINQ format which covers selecting, filtering, sorting, joining etc. but if you have complex SQL Queries (With Nested Queries, Functions , IN Clause and many joins), the effort to write and test the queries will be significantly higher. There is no stored procedure equivalent in oData. Below is an example of selecting all projects in a PWA Instance with only the column ProjectName in REST syntax

http://[ServerName]/[PWA Instance Name]/_api/ProjectData/Projects?$Select=ProjectName

See the following link to learn more about Querying OData feeds for Project Server 2013 reporting data.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj163048.aspx

OLAP Databases

OLAP databases are primarily used to Analytical reporting. These are available for on-premise deployment only and doesn’t contain any significant enhancement from previous Project Server versions.

Data Visualization

SQL Server Reporting Services

SSRS is a tool of choice of for developing traditional and UI Rich reports. SSRS does not natively support oData feeds. Though it is possible to consume oData feeds using XML data source, claims based authentication model of Office 365 makes it even more difficult to consume hosted project server data, hence this tool will mainly be used for on-premise deployments only.

Many EPM Solution providers have developed significant amount of SSRS based reports for previous versions and porting these reports for hosted version will require considerable effort.

Excel 2013

Excel 2013 has native support for oData Consumption and Project Server 2013 hosted version comes with pre-installed oData based Data Connections which are utilized by Excel based reports. Using the oData (or direct SQL data via SQL Query) capabilities of Excel 2013, Tabular, graphical and Pivot Table based reports can be created and published on SharePoint using Excel Services. For on-premise solutions, excel pivot tables can also connect to OLAP cubes.

Excel 2013 with Power View

Power view is an interactive, data visualization and exploration add-in for Excel 2013. This tool empowers power users to create Information rich and interactive dashboards based on Data models created in Power Pivot (Power Pivot can in-turn be a consumer of oData feeds).

Power view combines interactivity of Analytical reports like slicing, dicing, drilling up & down with very rich UI elements like Dashboards, Maps, Charts, Graphs, Tables & Images. Power-view is the key reporting differentiator from previous Project Server offerings as it empower day to day users to create attractive and useful dashboards. See the following links to learn more about power-view capabilities.

http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-excel/archive/2012/10/04/intro-to-power-view-for-excel-2013.aspx

http://pwmather.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/projectserver-powerview-report-in-excel-2013-ps2010-ps2013-office2013/

Other reporting tools

Any reporting tool capable of connecting to SQL Server (or OLAP cubes) directly can be used for on-premise deployment. Examples of such tools are Performance Point, Dundas Charts, Fusion Charts etc.

There are hardly any specialized tools available which consumes Project Server oData feeds natively. However, the open nature of Web Services allow the developer to write their own Custom applications to consume data and create custom Reporting UI. Developers can also use CSOM (Client side object model) to access data which is not available via oData feeds as oData only provides data which is available in Project Server Reporting Database tables and views.

Project 2013 Client side Reporting.

Project 2013 Client comes with many new reports. Creating dashboard based reports from single project data is intuitive and easy. This is definitely going to be a handy feature for Project Managers who wants to report project progress on ad-hoc or periodic basis. These reports are good for printing, presentations and sharing via email but unfortunately can’t be published over PWA.

Summary

Following table summarises various available technologies for Project Sever 2013 Reporting for both on-premise and hosted versions.

Technology	On Premise	Online	Comments
Data Query
Directly Quering SQL Server Reporting Database	Yes	No
oData	Yes	Yes
OLAP Database	Yes	No	Same capabilities as Project 2010
Data Visualization
SQL Server Reporting Services	Yes	Yes	Online version requires more work
Excel 2013 - Pivot Tables & Charts	Yes	Yes
Excel 2013 - Power View	Yes	Yes
Other Tools	Many	Few

Magnolia - Movie Review

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:33:00 +0000

Had every spoken “fuck” been omitted from it, the movie would have finished 30 minutes earlier. And there would still have enough curse words left in the movie to leave the impression intact.

This is the movie of Drug Addicts, child molester, Spouse cheaters, misogynist, humiliated kids etc. Some of them are dying from cancer, almost all of them are feeling guilty about their past.

Probably this and the reason that some Judeo-Christian biblical references were made throughout the movie (out of ignorance, I didn’t understand or appreciate any of it); I guess the reviewers on IMDB found the movie so philosophically intriguing. A good number of reviewers actually find this movie relating to real life around them.

I don’t come across people (that I know of) who are child molester or spouse cheaters and I am yet to see a person dying from cancer and making confessions about dark past. So I couldn’t relate to it and from my perspective it’s a pointless movie with brilliant acting performances.

Movie is depicted mostly in realistic fashion, except that there is a dense frog rain, sometimes characters become singers (All in same rhyme) and there was a reference made (twice) to 3 unrelated short stories where chance had unrealistic dominance. May be this was done to artificially stir the viewer’s brain into pointless thoughts.

Movie IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0175880/

خون کے پیاسے ہیں جو لڑنے میں جنگ خیر و شر

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 20:59:00 +0000

الوجهة المثالية لقضاء العطلات

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:46:00 +0000

أصبح السفر أسهل بكثيرمن الاوقات القديمة. ولهذا السبب فالسياحة يتزايد بسرعة۔ زرت مؤخرا تركيا۔ واعتقد انها واحدة من أفضل الوجهات لقضاء العطلات۔

تركيا هي من الأماكن التي يزورها السياح كثيرا۔ هناك الكثير من المعلومات المتوفرة عن زيارة هذا البلد. أفضل طريقة هي الزيارة مواقع السفر الاستشارية. ويمكن أيضا الترتيبات الاجرأ الأولية مثل تذاكر السفر وحجز الفندق يتم من خلال هذه المواقع على الإنترنت.

الاقامة

للزوار الجدد، اسطنبول هي المدينة الأفضل لزيارة الأولى. هناك الكثير من الفنادق الجيدة في منطقة اسمها السلطان أحمد في الجزء الأوروبي من المدينة القديمة. يمكن للزوار العاديين الذين يرغبون في البقاء لمدة أطول استئجار شقة أيضا.

مرافق و الخدمات

تركيا هي بلد سياحي. وجميع المرافق والخدمات التي تتوقعها في دولة عصرية تتوفرة فيها. المطاعم الجيدة، وأسواق لالتسوق ، مراكز المعلومات السياحية والأماكن السياحية القديمة والحديثة ، كل هذا متاح وسهل للبحث الوصول إلي اسطنبول.

تسوق

هناك مكان يسمى "البازار الكبير" عمره أكثر من 500 سنة وفيه 4000 محل تجاري . ولكن يمكن للناس الذين يرغبون في شراء الماركات الكبيرة أن يذهبو إلى مراكز التسوق الحديثة أيضا

أماكن لزيارة

هناك كنائس من العصور المسيحية القديمة, المساجد من القرن الخامس عشرة, وهناك ايضا بعض المتاحف الجيدة جدا وبعض الجزر الجميلة قابلة يمكن للوصول اليها خلال ساعة برحلة سفينة.

الطعام

الطعام التركية لذيذ وقريب جدا من المأكولات العربية. المأكولات البحرية مشهورة أيضا.

الطقس

الطقس جيد من ايار الى ايلول لانه معتدل. كانون الأول وكانون الثاني باردة جدا مثل أوروبا كلها. لذلك يعتبرون هذان الشهران خارج الموسم السياحي.

كتب و تكنولوجيا

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:21:00 +0000

الموضوع

مع تطور العالم, نرى الأشخاص, مشغولون بالكمبيوتر والتكنولوجيا هاملين الكتاب. ما رأيك بالموضوع, وماذا تفضل؟

الانشاء
الكمبيوتر تغير فعلا حياتنا. ثورة حقيقة فى الايام هي التواصل أصبح سهل جدا. انه شئ جيد لكن هناك جانب سئ ايضا. الآن الناس يتوقعون أن يتواصلوا منًا في أي ساعة الوقت. لا احد لديه الوقت للقراءة كتب . الناس يفضلون أن استعملوا Google للبحث عن كل شئ.بعض المفاهيم تحتاج وقت للاستعياب. في عالم سرعة الانترنيت لا يمكن هذا. لكن مع ذلك، يبيع الكتب اكثر يوم بعد يوم ايضا. وهذا يعني مازال الناس يحبون أن يقرأوا الكتب.

بالنسبة لي، الكتب لعبوا دورا كبيرا في صنع لي "لي". لا اجد الوقت للقراءة كتب كثيرة لكن مازلت آخذ الوقت الوقت للقراءة صفحات قليلة كل يوم ۔ بعد شراء آي فون، في الحقيقة لقد بدأت أن أقرا اكثر منه۔ لدي جعلت مخزن كبير من الكتب في آي فون۔ الآن كلما احصل على حتى عشرة دقائق، ابدأ اقرأ كتاب منه۔

الكتب أصدقاء الإنسان، والكتب ستكون دائما أصدقاء الانسان۔ التكنولوجيا للانسان و ليس الانسان للتكنولوجيا۔ لذلك الانسان يستعمل تكنولوجيا للاستفادة منها۔ الكتب تعطي فائدة لذلك الانسان سيستمر بقراءتها۔ مع أو بدون تكنولوجيا۔

كتابتي العربية الأولى

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 18:47:00 +0000

أتعلم اللغة العربية منذ تقريبا اربع أشهر .ولكن لم أحاول أن أكتب عن نفسي في هذه اللغة في وقت سابق. حتى الآن ، لقد تعلمت قواعد اللغة العربية الأساسية و رصيدي في المفردات زاد الى تقريبا 200 كلمة.ما زلت أفهم و اتكلم اللغة العربية قليلا فقط . سأكون 30 في شباط المقبل. وآمل انه بنهاية العام ٢٠١١ سوف أتحدث اللغة العربية بطلاقة

جس شخص کی یہاں پہ ، کچھ سوچ میں خلل ہے

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:58:00 +0000

Self Perception - The Black Swan

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:49:00 +0000

"This causes us to think that we are better then others at whatever we do for a living. 94 percent of Swedes believe that their driving skills put them in the top 50 percent of Swedish drivers; 84 percent of Frenchmen feel that their lovemaking abilities put them In the top half of French lovers.

The other effect of this asymmetry is that we feel a little unique, unlike others, for whom we do not perceive such an asymmetry. Consider how many people who have abruptly lost their job deemed it likely to occur, even a few days before. Or consider how many drug addicts entered the game willing to stay in it so long."

--
Excerpt from "The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

لال بہادر شاستری - گھنگرو ٹوٹ گئے

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:18:00 +0000

"حفیظ جالندھری جو ہمارے بزرگ شاعر تھےوہ ایک طرح سے مشاعرے میں شاعروں کے صدر تھے۔ ان کی عادت تھی کہ وہ کلام سنانے کے ساتھ ساتھ تقریر بھی کر جاتے تھے ۔ اور جملہ بازی بھی کر جاتے تھے۔ انہوں نے مناسب سمجھا کہ مشاعرے کے صدر لال بہادر شاستری سے تھوڑی سی بے تکلفی کریں۔ چنانچہ باتیں کرتے کرتے وہ کہنے لگے کہ یار شاستری ! سنو یہاں ایسے شعر نصیب نہیں ہوئے ہوں گے۔

اس جملے پر شاستری صاحب نے صرف آنکھیں حفیظ صاحب کی طرف کرے دیکھا اور کوئی رد عمل نہیں دیا۔ لیکن حفیظ صاحب نے دیکھ لیا کہ ان کی آنکھوں میں کیا ہے۔ چنانچہ انہوں نے پہلے تو پبلک کی طرف مخاطب ہو کر شعر سنایا اور پھر صاحب صدر کی طرف منہ کر کے انہیں جناب شاستری صاحب کہہ کہ مخاطب کیا۔ اس وقت شاستری صاحب کے چہرے پر بشاشت آئی اور انہوں نے سر ہلا کر کہا کہ ارشاد فرمائیے۔

میں نے اتنا بلیغ خاموشی والا آدمی زندگی میں نہیں دیکھا۔ خاموش رہ کر باتیں کرنے والا چہرہ شاستری کا تھا۔

حفیظ صاحب کا واقعہ یہ ہے کہ انہوں نے پہلے جملے میں گستاخانہ انداز اختیار کیا تھا اور وہاں کے ایک معزز شخص کو یار شاستری کہہ کر مخاطب کیا جس سے کہ ان کی بے تکلفی بھی نہیں تھی۔ کوئی اور شخص ہوتا تو اس کے چہرے پر ناگواری کی شکنیں آتیں لیکن شاستری صاحب نے اپنی خاموشی سے اور صرف حفیظ صاحب کی طرف دیکھ کر ہی اپنی ناپسندیدگی کا اظہار کر دیا۔ اور جب اگلی بار حفیظ صاحب نے کہا کہ جناب شاستری صاحب ! شعر ملاحظہ فرمائیے تو انہوں نے اپنے چہرے کے تاثر دیتے ہی پچھلے غصے کو بھلانے کا اظہار کر دیا۔"

قتیلؔ شفائی کی آپ بیتی "گھنگرو ٹوٹ گئے" سے اقتباس

Cost to drive a Kilometer

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:12:00 +0000

Consider that, I am likely to save 20 Dirham on my weekly grocery shopping every time I visit a hyper market 15 Kms away from my home than to do the same shopping from the grocery store at walking distance. Would it be a wise thing to drive 30 kilometers to and from that hyper market to save 20 Dirham?

Cost of fuel is relatively very low in Gulf and it might sound intuitive to answer Yes to the previous question. However, the true cost of driving 30 kilometers will also include depreciation of car value, increase in likelihood of traffic fines, parts maintenance cost etc etc.

To get the answer, I created this excel spreadsheet and got some eye-opening (my eyes get wide open whenever I calculate my expenses) results. If you too, want to calculate your “Cost of a Kilometer”, follow the below steps. Share your results in comments section for others to know. Formulas to calculate costs are fairly simple and your comments can help me in creating improvised versions.

How to Use the workbook:

Download the workbook from http://sites.google.com/site/hammadbinarif/blog/CostofaKilometer.xls
Fill in all the Yellow Cells. Most cells ask for fairly basic information. Drop me a comment or email if you have a confusion regarding any cell.
White Cells are description of cost factors and Orange Cells are auto-calculated values so you don’t need to touch them.
Your operational cost per kilometer will be calculated in Cell G23. This is the cost which will directly increase by driving additional kilometers.
Your Total cost per kilometer will be calculated in Cell G24. This will be your operational cost / KM plus time bound costs like Insurance, monthly parking fees etc.
To calculate cost of a specific trip, use the work sheet named “Trip Cost”. Enter trip name in column A, and distance in Column B. Column C & D will calculate Total Cost (Good for cost of 1 trip) & Operational cost (Good for comparing alternative trips) for you.
Optionally, if you drive outside UAE, you can mention alternative currencies (e.g. USD & Cents, Rs. & Paisa) in Cell J1 & Cell J2. Use Cell G1 to determine the whether you want results in AED or fils (or your currency)

Rest of this article is detail about calculation factors and can be ignored if this is not the topic of your interest.

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Usages: Below are the potential questions which this excel sheet can help answering (or give indication).

To use a Car or a metro. Even if you already own a car, use the “Trip Cost” workbook to calculate costs for specific trips. Check “Operational Cost” column as your annual costs will not be affected by this trip.
Whether to buy a 2nd car to be used by your spouse or he/she better use public transport.
To rent a cheap but distant apartment or not.
To go through shorter route by paying Salik (Road Toll) or longer route without toll. (My answer mostly is to pay Salik and use shorter route)
How many kilometers should I drive every month if I have a monthly budget of spending 3,000/- Dhms.

Not Included in Calculation: This excel sheet will not help in calculating the following:

Cost of Time: Time to drive the car can be utilized in some other productive (or non-productive) alternative. Time required to perform car maintenance, care registration, insurance renewals etc will again have an opportunity cost associated. Cost of time is very debatable topic and I haven’t included it for the sake of simplicity.
Cost of Physical effort to drive, mental stress and fatigue caused by long drives haven’t been considered due to their subjective nature.
Cost of discomfort when your car unexpectedly breaks down and you keep staring curelessly at your car engine in scorching heat or cold breeze.
Cost of acquiring a license to drive.
Benefit of comfort of being not dependent on Cab. No need to wait in queue for public transport, and no need to worry about cab when you have an emergency at 4:00 am. This priceless advantage is not considered precisely because its priceless.
Benefit of ego boosting of being a car owner
Benefit of having privacy while driving. You wouldn’t want to kidnap someone in a cab ;)
Cost of Salik (Toll gate) is not correlated to distance or time. It is related to specific locations only and hence i have not included it in calculations. You can add the Salik cost when comparing two alternative trips.

Approximations: The cost calculation is only approximate due to following factors.

Not every factor is 100% correlated with distance. Cleaning/Enhancement/Accidents are only partially related to the distance you drive the car while Maintenance cost, resell value, fuel cost is highly (but not 100%) correlated.
Quality of a Kilometer also varies by location. It costs far more (due to fuel consumption and car depreciation) to drive a kilometer in Rolla-Sharjah then to drive a kilometer at Emirates Road. To overcome this, put in your calculations (mileage, maintenance cost) considering your average quality of kilometer in mind.
Cost of maintenance per kilometer will increase after every kilometer. Again, you can use average maintenance cost to overcome this.

نیم حمایت

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:24:00 +0000

۲۰۰۸ میں وسعت اللہ خان نے اپنے اس کالم میں مدلل انداز میں یہ نکتہ واضح کیا تھا کہ شدت پسندوں کی نیم حمایت کرنے والے بھی آخر کار انہی شدت پسندوں کے غیض و غضب کا نشانہ بن جاتے ہیں۔

شہباز شریف کے حالیہ بیان میں غالباً یہی شکوہ پوشیدہ ہے۔

وسعت کا کالم :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/story/2008/10/081007_religious_parties_as.shtml

شہباز شریف کا بیان :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/03/100314_shahbaz_attacks_sen.shtml

مشکل ہوئے اس کے لئے حالات بہت تھے

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:38:00 +0000

Conviction - The Leopard and the Fox

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:59:00 +0000

"BHUTTO (chuckling). Unheard of! We have our cock-eyed Pathan from the frontier. Did you know his wife was caught stealing panties at Marks and Spencers in London?

Cherry shakes her head and laughs.

BHUTTO (cont'd). She was convicted. A fine. Her husband said it was an imperialist-Zionist plot! (Both men laugh.) She returned home red-faced. Denied it all. Frame up, etc., etc., . . Then her husband's best friend, or so we thought, an upright old feudal type, also gave a press conference on the subject. (mimics) 'Why should this decent lady steal panties in the first place. She never wears any.' Cherry? How did he know? Our workers and peasants demand an answer!"

Excerpt from "The Leopard and the Fox" by Tariq Ali

Dual booting Windows Server 2008 R2 with Vista

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:32:00 +0000

I was little worried when I found out that I would have to install Windows Server 2008 R2 to play with some of the Server based technologies (SharePoint 2010, EPM 2010, etc). I already had installed a Vista Business x64 6 months ago and It was performing good and my concern was that whether my existing installation of Vista will be retained or not? And subsequently will I be able to have choice of booting through either OS or not.
Finally i did installed Windows Server 2008 R2 today & fortunately, the results were very good. Installation was a very smooth procedure, took less then an hour and (I think) less then a dozen clicks. And my Boot Loader was automatically configured to give me option to boot through Vista or Server 2008 :)
Both Operating Systems are working fine.

فرقہ وارانہ فسادات - پنجابی طالبان

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:51:00 +0000

محمد احمد لدھیانوی کو آج بھی جھنگ میں طاقتور شخصیت تسلیم کیا جاتا ہےبلکہ پچھلے دنوں فوجی ہیڈ کوارٹر (جی ایچ کیو) پر جب حملہ آوروں نے کئی اعلیٰ فوجی عہدیداروں کو کئی گھنٹے تک یرغمال بنائے رکھا تو حملہ آوروں سے بات چیت کے لئے فوجی کمانڈروں نے کالعدم سپاہِ صحابہ کے سربراہ محمد احمد لدھیانوی سے جھنگ میں ہی رابطہ کیا اور "مدد" حاصل کی۔

دوسری طرف فیصل آباد میں قائم اہلِ تشیع مدرسہ "جامع آلِ محمد" فرقہ وارانہ قتل و غارت میں اہم کردار ادا کرتا رہا ہے۔ مذکورہ مدسرے کے بانی محمد اسماعیل دیو بندی پاکستان میں فرقہ واریت کے بانیوں میں شمار کئے جاتے ہیں۔ مولانا اسماعیل احمد دیوبندی جیسا کہ نام سے ظاہر ہے شیعہ مذہب اختیار کرنے سے پہلے دیو بندی مسلک سے منسلک تھے۔ ان کے بارے میں مشہور ہے کہ وہ ایک شعلہ بیان مناظر اور خطیب تھے جو اپنے خطبات کے ذریعے "آگ" لگانے میں مہارت رکھتے تھے۔ جب انہوں نے دیوبندی مسلک کو ترک کر کے شیعہ مسلک اختیار کیا تو انہوں نے اپنی اس شعلہ بیانی رخ سنّی عقائد کی طرف موڑ دیا۔ عقیدہ تبدیل کرنے کے بعد انہیں اہلِ تشیع حلقوں میں ہاتھوں ہاتھ لیا گیا اور وہ ہر مجلس میں اپنی تقریر کا آغاز اس جملے سے کرتے کہ "میں بالآخر مذہب حق کی طرف لوٹ آیا ہوں اور آپ سے معافی کا طلب گا ر ہوں کہ میں نے اپنے "ایامِ جہالت" میں آپ لوگوں کی بہت دل آزاری کی اور دینِ اسلام کی اصل شخصیات کو پہچان نہ سکا"۔

مجاہد حسین کی تصنیف "پنجابی طالبان" سے اقتباس۔

Attock Oil Shares - A banker for all seasons

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:12:00 +0000

"Our information is that the BCCI not only set up the deal but retains effective control of the Attock. The Attock Oil share supposedly held by 'Arab investors' were placed under lock and key by Abedi's henchman Swaleh Naqvi -- together with undated transfer documents signed by all four principles of KIFCO. Thus Abedi, without appearing formally on the record, has Pakistan's nascent oil industry neatly under his thumb.
The BCCI's official spokesmen deny this account, and say that the Attock Oil shares has been registered 'perfectly normally' in the name of yet another company, Finance and Investment International Corporation (FIIC). It perhaps comes as no surprise that this registration took place in the Cayman Islands, where FIIC is domiciled, like too many interesting parts of the BCCI structure."

--
Excerpt from "A banker for all seasons" by Tariq Ali.

Me & This Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:45:00 +0000

A good shoe is missed when a bad one starts biting. Oxygen is felt more when it is scarce. Few weeks ago, I turned 29 and the list of things which gets my attention more because they are no more there, is getting longer and longer.

I started losing hair noticeably ever since I entered into the 3rd decade of my life. Thankfully this is something money (in my case, Master Card) can buy and I had a hair transplant 4 years ago. The result was quite good and it remained good till I started losing rest of my original hair. Now I don’t know if I'll have another transplant or not but my attention span to my hair has grown forever.

There is no standard way to measure the ability of memorization. but if I have to go by guts then my ability to remember new names and recent happenings has been reduced to 1/3 of what it used to be at teenage. The sharp good memory was always so taken for granted that I still silently hope that my guts are giving me the wrong signal.

Often being laughed at for being under weight at young age, my body Fat is increasing at appx. 1% of total body weight every year. The target of "get slim" has slowly transitioned to "get less fat". The only progress so far is the progress of transition itself.

Sleeping (one of the 3 best things in life, the other two being eating and having sex) early or at will has never been in my control. But once I used to get sleep, having a good sleep like a baby was a built-in, fundamental and obvious feature of life. Now the duration is shortened and the quality has degraded.

It took me 4 years to complete Hifz-e-Quran, 13 to complete school till 10th Grade, 2 more to complete Higher secondary school and then 4 more to become a Bachelor in Computer Science. 8 years since then, and my Educational Qualification is virtually stagnant. Once an ambition and then a wish, growing career and social responsibilities have turned acquiring Masters degree now into a distant dream.

In a human mind, thoughts come and go at hundredth fractions of a second. One can have essentially millions of thoughts a day. Among those million opportunities, whenever I compare myself with my other peers, I always find myself "above-average" in most regards. Now If you are reading this post from the beginning than you might consider it an over estimation, but then a vast majority of people at Orkut have described themselves having above-average looks (giving the whole new meaning to the word "average" :D) .

Loss always accompanies a gain. Some times for some other person and other times for the same person. Among the many other things which I have gained from the losses is a realization that I don't have to lose something before I could start appreciating it. Like an acquired skill, the realization has slowly been evolved in me with time.

I have realized that there are countless things in my life which I like them for being there. Almost every person, every moment and everything has some good to offer which others can't. There is so much in my life which deserves appreciation. The early self-actualization through my parents. The intense desire to grow up (and now not to grow up further), acquiring wealth of knowledge at madrasah and school. The useless time I spend with my friends, the books I read, my thoughts, my sense of dressing, my writings, moments that I spent with my wife, moments I spent with her when she wasn't my wife, sometimes car driving, stalking semi anonymous people at Face book, intense debates with friends and unknown people on internet forums, creating my own computer software, movies I watch, plans I make to get organized and then assuming that I'll achieve them, presentations I do to my customers, the fatty food I eat and the running I do on treadmill, taking photographs, gossiping about friends with other friends, and the list is endless.

I have created this blog to bring some of these appreciations on the record. Every blog post would be a subtle appreciation in form of the knowledge shared in that post. As you are reading this blog, you already know some aspect of me,(and particularly if you know me in real life), I owe you an appreciation and thanking for being part of my life.

The blog is dedicated to me and everything and every one that makes me "Me".

یہ میرا شہر وفا اور میں اکیلا آدمی - قتیلؔ شفائی

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:32:00 +0000

یہ میرا شہر وفا اور میں اکیلا آدمی

میرے لاکھوں آشنا اور میں اکیلا آدمی

ایک ہی سر ہے جھکا سکتا ہوں کس کس کے لئے

ان گنت میرے خد ا اور میں اکیلا آدمی

گھومتا پھرتا ہوں شاید مجھ سا کوئی آن ملے

غم کے میلے جا بجا اور میں اکیلا آدمی

اپنی تنہائی سے بھی ہوتی نہیں اب گفتگو

بے کراں قدِ اَنا اور میں اکیلا آدمی

اس کی رحمت کے ہزاروں در مگر وہ بے نیاز

میرے سو دستِ دعا اورمیں اکیلا آدمی

درد کے الہام نازل ہو رہے ہیں دم بدم

دل کے یہ غارِ حرا اور میں اکیلا آدمی

مل کے حوا سے کیا آباد اسے میں نے قتیلؔ

یہ جہاں میری عطا، اورمیں اکیلا آدمی

پاکستان آرٹس کونسل میں کہی گئی قتیلؔ شفائی کی معرکتہ الآرا غزل

ہم سنائیں تو کہانی اور ہے - احمد فرازؔ

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:19:00 +0000

ہم سنائیں تو کہانی اور ہے

یار لوگوں کی زبانی اور ہے

جو کہا ہم نے وہ مضمون اور تھا

ترجمان کی ترجمانی اور ہے

نامہ بر کو کچھ بھی ہم پیغام دیں

داستاں اس نے سنانی اور ہے

آپ زمزم دوست لائے ہیں عبث

ہم جو پیتے ہیں وہ پانی اور ہے

شاعری کرتی ہے اک دنیا فرازؔ

پر تیری سادہ بیانی اور ہے

احمد فرازؔ

Inside Job - Stranger To History

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:25:00 +0000

'It's always an inside job', Laxman replied. 'First, the dacoits gave the police ten percent, then the police started demanding more, twenty, thirty, forty. Finally it was phipty-phipty. Then the police said, "Why let them do it when we can do it ourselves?" So now the off-duty policemen are the dacoits.'

Excerpt from "Stranger to History" by Aatish Taseer

The Trial - A History of God

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:30:00 +0000

"Yet it is also true that even in Auschwitz some Jews continued to study the Talmud and observe the traditional festivals, not because they hoped that God would rescue them but because it made sense. There is a story that one day in Auschwitz, a group of Jews put God on trial. They charged him with cruelty and betrayal. Like Job, they found no consolation in the usual answers to the problem of evil and suffering in the midst of this current obscenity. They could find no excuse for God, no extenuating circumstances, so they found him guilty and, presumably, worthy of death. The Rabbi pronounced the verdict. Then he looked up and said that the trial was over: it was time for the evening prayer."

--
Excerpt from "A History of God" By Karen Armstrong

خانہ بدوش - بدلتی ہوئی تاریخ

noreply@blogger.com (Hammad) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:58:00 +0000

"فریزر نے ان کے بارے میں جو تجزیہ کیا ہے وہ دوسری جماعتوں، فرقوں اور گروہوں سے انہیں مختلف کر دیتا ہے۔ مثلاً ان کے ہاں کوئی مذہبی طبقہ نہیں ہے، کوئی مذہبی کتاب نہیں ہے کہ جو ان کی اخلاقی قدروں کو متعین کرے۔ کوئی استاد اور راہنما نہیں ہے کہ جو ان کی نسلی روایات کی نگرانی کرے ان کی زبان کا کوئی ایک معیار نہیں ہے۔ ہمیشہ خانہ بدوشی اور گردش میں رہنے کی وجہ سے جہاں جاتے ہیں وہاں کی زبان کے الفاظ ان کی زبان میں آجاتے ہیں۔ خاص بات یہ ہے کہ واپس جانے کے لئے ان کی کوئی سرزمین نہیں، ہندوستان سے انہیں کوئی دلچسپی نہیں ہے، اور نہ ہی وطن کے بارے میں ان کے ہاں ناستلجیا ہے۔ یہی حال ان کا تاریخ سے دلچسپی کا ہے۔ کیونکہ ہمیشہ پھرتے رہتے ہیں۔ اور کسی ایک جگہ سے تعلق نہیں، اس لئے یہ کسی قوم یا سرزمین کی تاریخ کا حصہ بھی نہیں ہیں۔ نہ ہی انہیں اپنی تاریخ سے کوئی لگاؤہے اور نہ ہی ماضی سے اپنہ رشتہ بناتے ہیں۔ ان خصوصیات کی وجہ سے جپسی گروہ ایک ایسے کردار اور خصوصیت کا حامل ہے جودوسروں کے ہاں نہیں ہیں۔"

ڈاکٹر مبارک علی کی تصنیف "بدلتی ہوئی تاریخ"سےاقتباس۔