Pakistan Day Celebration in Silicon Valley, CA

Pakistan Day was celebrated today at Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, CA under the auspices of PACC, Pakistan American Cultural Center. PACC is a newly formed group in the bay area led by an NEDian Asghar Aboobaker, Farrukh Shah Khan and others. This was quite a celebration with food, flags, music and games. A job well done for a start. I took the opportunity to go along with my family to join the fun and celebration and promote NED Convention 2007. Here are a few pics I'm sharing with you:

Haq Family in Niagra, Canada

I took sometime off with the family in Canada and attended a family wedding as the summer approaches to a close. I also used the opportunity to meet NEDians and promote the Nedians convention in Sept in SAn Jose. Here are a few pics to share:

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Well, if you don't, please visit www.nedians.org asap. No procrastination, no excuses, if you really want to be a part of the largest gathering of NEDians anywhere outside of Karachi in 2007. If you are an NEDian, this is a unique opportunity to celebrate the NEDian in you, the rich heritage of NED and genuine pride in your accomplishments and the achievements of your friends in the high-tech valley in California. Show up and be counted! Sign-up on line and we'll show the way to San Jose. Be there Sept 8, 2007.
Riaz

NED UNiversity Alumni Convention 2007

NED Alumni of Silicon Valley, CA are celebrating the illustrious history and the rich heritage of our alma mater on Sept 8, 2007 in San Jose, CA. I am very proud to be one such alumnus enthusiastically helping organize this historic event, a first in the high-tech capital of the world, which is now home to hundreds of NEDians. NEDians have made a strong contribution to the development of this valley, its economy and its reputation of innovation around the world. Yours truly is proud to have made his contribution as the lead designer of the Intel 80386 microprocessor and his contribution to Pentium processor/software development and as an entrepreneur and cofounder of two high-tech startups. Please visit www.nedians.org to learn more about NED and NEDians in the high-tech valley. This event is open to both NEDians and non-NEDians. So feel free to register early online at nedians.org.

Sicko challenges the power of US Healthcare lobby

I saw Michael Moore's latest documentary "Sicko" last night along with my family. It opens as usual with a "Bushism" this time relating to healthcare "Litigation prevents OBGYNs practicing their love of women". Then it gets much more serious in bringing out the atrocious state of healthcare in the US and compares it to what the healthcare lobbyists deride as "socialized medicine" in Britain, France, Canada and Cuba. It clearly shows that the people receiving healthcare in these countries are healtheir and happier than the US healthcare consumers.
It also points out the corrosive power and influence of the healthcare lobbyists in the US and how they have essentially purchased the key legistators with large campaign contributions.
My earnest hope is that this movie will reingnite the healthcare debate and have a positive outcome for the average healthcare consumer this time.

Release BBC Correspondent Alan Johnston

As an American Muslim of Pakistani origin, I appeal to the captors of Alan Johnston to please release Alan unharmed immediately. BBC and its correspondents in the Middle East are among the few objective sources of news in the West about the events in Israeli occupied terreitories of Palestine. Instead of targeting the BBC, we ought to appreciate and support the BBC staff around the world.

On Demand Computing

It is a rather humbling coincidence that all the talk about always-connected on-demand computing at Web 2.0 conference and the major outages of Blackberry and Turbotax happened in the same week. In the Western World, we can take on-demand availability of water and electricity for granted. However, the Internet connection reliability and availability is a reminder to us how the other half of the world copes with unreliable supply of water and electricity on a daily basis. I think the Web as a platform for mission-critical enterprise computing will eventually happen but not in the next few years.

Web 2.0 Conference

I had a chance to attend the Web 2.0 conf keynotes in San Francisco today. Having been in mobile software space for sometime, all the talk about mobile web 2.0 and endorsement by Eric Schmidt of Google resonated well for me. The real ubiquity of Web 2.0 will not materialize until every possible mobile access device including handsets and cell phones allow people to enjoy the benefits of the collaborative web. A good start seems to have been made but we have a long way to go.

Don Imus's Outrage

There's a justifiable outrage in response to Don Imus's reprehensible racist and sexist remarks. Imus should his lose his job and the platform he has used to perpetrate this outrage.
But as we join the chorus of condemnation, let us ask the question: Would there be similar outrage as widely expressed if the offense had been targeted at a smaller religious or ethnic group?

Haq Family in Europe

Here are a few pics from our European vacations.