wikked thoughts by Waqas Ahmed

I tried Firefox briefly, and really liked it, but couldn’t switch to it permanently from my IE based Avant Browser plugin because I didn’t like the way it handled tabs. However, the comments to a post on A VC’s blog provided the solution. I simply need to install extensions for Firefox.

If Firefox really wants to take over the world, it will have to ship with better defaults out the door.

October 8th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

I know you couldn’t care less, but I’ve finally posted an about page for this blog.

October 5th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

Seattle’s KEXP 90.3 FM (and 91.7 FM) is simply the best radio station I’ve ever heard. I’ve been listening to it in my car and online for about a month now and have very few complaints.

Random cool things:

- Real time listing (and history) of what’s playing right now
- Two weeks of archived music
- Eclectic international mix
- No commercials (listener powered)

September 15th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

Follow-up from my previous post on bitoogle. It seems it has been renamed to Yotoshi and now can even search KaAaA (while filtering out the fake RIAA seeded files of course).

August 29th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

A shoutout for a friend of mine. He belongs to a really cool offroading club in Pakistan. The 4×4 Offroaders Club Karachi has been making some cool and far reaching trips into the wilds of southern and central Pakistan.

The photos are simply spectacular – how can you not want to join them on their next trip?

August 19th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

I need one of these babies…

All I have to do is pair my 3 Mbps Comcast cable connection with a 6 Mbps DSL connection from Speakeasy. Leech heaven! Well, until I feel the need for a hundred megabit connection anyway…

August 17th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

Bitoogle looks to be an interesting extension of google. I can always use a better search for torrents.

www.bitoogle.com

August 13th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

Microsoft finally caught up. Now there’s a web based interface to MSN Messenger. Solves firewall and admin rights problems for those stuck behind corporate security policies.

I like the interface. It’s fairly close to the installable client. It doesn’t seem to support sending messages to mobile devices though. Or if it does, I haven’t found it yet.

August 9th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

I’ve been using Orkut now for exactly three months now. I liked it a lot in the beginning, but its performance has gone from bad to worse to unusable now. Sure, it’s a beta service, but so is Gmail. Google doesn’t seem to have the same quality of service applied to their beta services.

The good:
1. The social networking bit.
2. It’s more attractive than Plaxo so it has enough of my friends on it to make this the go to place to get current contact information for friends.
3. A replacement for classmates.com for people who didn’t happen to go to school in the US.

The bad:
1. Damn slow and unreliable.
2. The messages UI is terrible. 5 messages at a time, and takes forever to delete them one by one. The “To:” in the header does not even tell you which community the message was sent to.
3. Session time-outs for no apparent reason, on following a link – much before the 30 minute limit.

Overall: I’m waiting for the speed to catch up with the huge user base before I go back to using Orkut with any regularity.

August 4th, 2004 | | | Comments Off

In the last month I’ve looked for a home in Seattle, found one, placed a bid on it, closed on it and finally moved into it. Long process, but worth it in the end. The experience was complete with the obligatory period of having to eat and sleep on the floor while waiting for furniture to be delivered.

Here are some pictures of my condo in Queen Anne. The interior pictures were taken by the previous owner.

August 2nd, 2004 | | | Comments Off

I had a great time tonight. Someone needed to get rid of tickets to an Eric Clapton concert and I was only too happy to oblige. It also gave me a chance to check out the Key Arena at the Seattle Center. The opening band was one I hadn’t heard before: Robert Randolph and the Family Band.

Randolph & Co. were loud, exuberant and knew how to put together a good beat. Robert even managed a song on stage with Clapton himself after the concert. It’s always good to hear an opening band that doesn’t suck. Makes the tedium of the set changes between the performances easier to bear.

As for Clapton himself… what can I say? He was spectacular. The acoustics in the arena were good and did justice to his strings. He did a mixture of old and new songs, but didn’t leave out Cocaine and Layla.

July 27th, 2004 | | | Comments Off