Category: Life

the Universe and Everything Else

Bomb Blast In Lahore

Sohaib Athar

My wife normally picks up my son from school at 1:30AM. She had forgotten her cell at home today, and at 1:40PM I receiving a call on her cell from my son's friend's mother who had  heard a couple of blasts on her way home, and wanted to confirm my wife was okay. She told me the school administration was panicked and the roads were blocked all over. I could do nothing but wait – thankfully, she got home before they blocked the Mall completely.

The blasts, they say, were in the Naval Academy (near Zafar Ali Rd. and the canal). It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same… the last time I glanced at the TV, the death toll was 5 people. I don't know whether the motive was political or religious, or both (as our religion is inseparable from the state), but what I do know is that we love to cheer on the people killing their brethren in the name of religion – as long as it is happening in another country. Hmm, maybe I should move out of Pakistan and cheer the people fighting (killing) in the name of religion from a safe distance.

Freelancers and Consultants Must Read This

Sohaib Athar7 Comments

FreelanceSwitch.com is a blog full of insights and resources for the freelancers and consultants of the world (For those wondering about what's the difference between the two, this link provides a good explanation). They conducted a survey last year, and published the results of the survey today. You can download the survey results here. 

A few statistics in the 50+ page report that I found very interesting are:

  •  32.6% of freelancers earn less than they can from full-time employment.
  • 80% freelancers would prefer more money.
  • Only 22% of the freelancers work less and earn more compared to their prior job-oriented careers… and yet
  • 88.9% of the freelancer are happier now that they are freelancing.

Some more interesting statistics, particularly for the Pakistani Freelancers

  • Referrals account for 89% of new work (so keep your clients happy)
  • 15% work comes through blogs (start a blog duh)
  • The hourly average rate for softwre developers is around 73$ (stop charging 13$ per hour Pakis, its the lowest rate in the world (besides Bulgaria and Indonesia) in the survey.
  • UK freelance programmers charge the highest rate (158$)
  • Of the industries categorized in the survey, software designers and programmers earn the most.

Let me know if you find anything else of interest in the survey pdf.

Oh, and do join the Pakistani Freelancers group on Facebook if you are one. 

On throughput, quality and quantity of blog posts

Sohaib Athar

It has been 10 months since I started this blog. At 50 posts, its about a post a week (a post per weekend is what I aim for in fact) – not a lot by any standards but who cares.

I have estimated that I have spend around 20 minutes on writing an average sized post, out of which, half the time is spent on rereading and correcting spelling, grammatical and structural mistakes in an attempt to make it more coherent. In a brief moment of insight (2 minutes ago), I have decided to do away with those extra 10 minutes, which should double the quantity (though perhaps decreasing the quality, but I can live with that) of posts. This means no more using arrow keys and copy/cut/pastes after I am done writing – I will still use the arrow keys to insert new words where they belong, but no more rereading and editing. I feel liberated already.

PTCL Triple Play Project

ReallyVirtual13 Comments

LESCO, teamed with my local ISP (who gives bandwidth on LAN, and therefore, dies with every one hour power failure) finally made me bite the bullet and move to the PTCL Triple Play Project aka Broadband Pakistan today. The PTCL techs just left after installing the connection (in 10 minutes) and the speed tests so far are not bad at all.

PTCL speed

Contrary to my expectations, I have had a very smooth customer service experience till now. One of the few good things about Broadband Pakistan is that you can get it upgraded and downgraded for free with one phone call, and you will be charged according to your usage. They didn't give me a wifi modem though (they save them for the 1Mbps lines, discriminating 8@$tards!), but told me to call their office after 4-5 days and they will change the modem (I hope they are true to their words). Now I just need to test the one dozen UPSes lying around to find a working one and I'll be a bit less dependent on LESCO.

Musharraf Can Joke (New Business Opportunities)

ReallyVirtual

shirtWho says our President Musharraf can't joke? Here's the latest news from GEO:

PARIS: President Pervez Musharraf Tuesday invited French businessmen to invest in Pakistan without any fears, saying circumstances are conducive for investment in the country. Addressing business executives at a hotel after reaching here in the second leg of his visit, President Musharraf assured safety to the foreign investment and pointed out that the terrorists have never hit business entrepreneurs in the country …

So, can you spot the cruel joke in there? Though the word 'Frenchman' itself is an oxymoronic joke to some, the one I am referring to is how our President (who seems to lack sincere advisers these days) actually used the F word ('fear', you effin eff!) in a room full of French business people! Of all the places in the world, he had to do it in France!

Didn't anyone tell him about what French people are famous for?! On second though, maybe he was just trying to help the French by giving them a chance to work in the most dangerous country in the world, or maybe his speech was written by an american master with a sense of humor. I wish I were there to see it happen (please point me to a recording if one exists please).

(When a country's president has to point out that 'look! our terrorists don't kill entrepreneurs!", that is another huge sick joke, but we aren't supposed to notice that.)

In the last couple of weeks, two potential client firms from Europe that we were negotiating with, politely 'postponed' their decision to start their outsourcing centers in Lahore after hearing about the blast at the GPO. So let us make some lemonade… forget 'Destination Pakistan', there must be a huge untapped market in T-shirts and other memorabilia around the '… most dangerous…' phenomenon – and pretty soon, it may be the only viable business option left for us, so let us start practicing. Let us ask our terrorist brothers to keep blowing people up, while you and I can start selling stuff. Here's one I just made [cafepress.com], wear it with pride!