Public transport: New e-ticketing system for buses ready for test run

The Lahore Transport Company (LTC) is to give a handheld device for issuing bus tickets a weeklong trial run with a view to putting one on each bus operating in the city.

The e-ticketing pilot project will be launched on an Albayrak bus on the B-28 route (Airport to Valencia Town) in a few days, LTC officials told The Express Tribune.

A passenger getting on the bus will tell the conductor her destination. The conductor will type it into the handheld device, which will give a ticket printout for the passenger.

The device will be equipped with WiFi, GPRS and GPS, so it can send real time data on number of passengers to a central computer equipped with software to keep track of numbers and do comparative studies. The main data centre can also monitor the movement of the buses through a GPS device installed in the buses. (complete news)

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Countries express interest in Pak-China’s JF-17 Thunder

Many countries around the world are keen on obtaining JF-17 Thunder fighter jet jointly developed by Pakistan and China, said a senior officer of the Pakistan Air Force on Sunday.

“We’ve been getting inquiries and expressions of interest for the JF-17 Thunder from many countries in the Middle East, Africa and from as far as South America,” Air Marshal Sohail Gul Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, told China Daily.

Pakistan has had the privilege of showcasing the fighter plane twice in China’s International Airshow held bi-annually in Zhuhai.

The JF-17 Thunder or the FC-1 Fierce Dragon as it’s known in China is a third-generation multipurpose combat jet co-developed by Aviation Industry Corp of China and the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC). (Complete news)

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Creative industry: Here’s why being Pakistani should make you proud

Would it make you proud if I told you that the Venom character in the Spiderman III movie was developed and animated by a Pakistani? How does it feel to know that a Pakistani animator worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as X-Men First Class, The Day After Tomorrow, Mummy, The Incredible Hulk, Land of The Lost, Surf’s Up and Ghost Rider? How does it feel to know that the same animator won an Oscar in 2008 for working on the winning sequences of The Golden Compass?

Feels great, doesn’t it? I felt the elation at a whole different level, as I came to know all this through a white man I met at the JFK airport when I was flying from New York to Chicago before Christmas last year.

I felt numb with pride when he told me about the exploits of Meer Zafar Ali, a graduate from FAST Karachi, the man who won that Oscar and accomplished the other animation feats mentioned above. (Complete Article)

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Malaysia to set up center to honour Dr Atta-ur-Rehman

A top Malaysian university will set up a research institute to honour prominent Pakistani scientist Dr. Atta-ur-Rehman.

The “Atta-ur-Rahman Institute of Natural Product Discovery (RiND)” will be inaugurated at the University of Teknologi Mara (UiTM) on March 4, 2013, during an International  Conference on Natural Products, where Rehman is being invited as a guest of honour to deliver  the keynote speech for the “Jack Cannon Lecture”.

The UiTM had awarded Rehman an honorary doctorate degree in 2011 and RiND is another accolade for the scientist.

“The RiND will will work on full-fledged PhD programs in fields such as organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, neuroscience, proteomics, pharmacology, pharmacognosy and molecular medicine with a special focus on the bioactive constituents of terrestrial plants and marine sources,” Rehman said while speaking to Dawn.com. (Complete news)

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Young technologists shine at 13th Softcom

Caffeine, adrenaline and ambition fueled the three-day annual Softcom at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute in Topi, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The event took off on November 16, Friday and ran until November 18, Sunday afternoon, hosting students from several universities across Pakistan. (Complete news)

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Moon Conquered! A Pakistani newspaper, Daily News honouring Neil Armstrong and others on their successful Lunar landing on July 21, 1969.

I just realised last night after returning to Lahore that I forgot to scan pages of a Pakistani newspaper archive I have from 60s and 70s. Really hope I have enough time on a next visit to Islamabad that I can take pictures of more stuff from those newspapers and share how our parents had a lot of fun before things got to us in Pakistan :)

*Thanks to my brother Salman for taking this picture. (via umalik)

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The first men on the moon land in Pakistan. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (the first men to land on the moon), arrived in Karachi in early 1970 during their tour of South Asia. Here they are seen being greeted by an enthusiastic crowd just outside the Karachi Airport. –Picture courtesy LIFE.

RIP Neil Armstrong (via haceeb)

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I am glad to announce that, after three days of effort, the Grum botnet has finally been knocked down. All the known command and control (CnC) servers are dead, leaving their zombies orphaned. How it all happened is a long story, but I would like to summarize it for you. (complete blog post about this, news item)

For more about Ashar Aziz read Sramana Mitra’s interview with him here

My story begins in Pakistan where I was born and grew up. I was born in Karachi and I grew up in Islamabad. I still maintain a residence in that part of the world. When I was very young, one of my cousins told me I was smart and that there was a technical school out there called MIT which was the best in the world. I was 13 at the time, and I did not know how to get there. I decided to pursue that opportunity, but the way I went about it was a bit odd.

I did not know the address, so I went to the American Center where they told me I could not go there for undergraduate school, only grad school. That was completely untrue. There was a scholarship for a school in Turkey, and I heard that if you went there then you could go to MIT. I decided to try for that scholarship, and I ended up winning it. I went there en route to MIT because I thought that was the only way to get there. True enough, there were two people who went to MIT from that school every year as transfer students. I managed to be one of those two, and transferred to MIT as a junior.

I also had always had a desire to be an entrepreneur.

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Pakistan100 Entrepreneurs at AllWorld Network in Washington DC

• Growing at 55% a year
• Employ over 41,000 people
• 82% plant to found another company in next two years
• 50% have helped employees start businesses

Read about these success stories here, or check how it has been covered in the media here. You can also read a complete report on Pakistan100 here.

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Gurmani Foundation Gives LUMS PKR One Billion Endowment

The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) has received a most generous gift of PKR. 1 Billion (Rs. 1,000,000,000) from the Gurmani Foundation which will be used to set up an endowment for supporting financial assistance programmes for the most deserving students and for a range of scholarly activities. This is the largest single gift ever received by LUMS and may also be the single largest gift ever given to an educational institution in Pakistan. (complete article)

People of the State of Bahawalpur continue to do charity which no one else can match up with. Respect+

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