:: Tanvier's Time Machine ::

Windows Vista and Office 2007 are being released today. Windows Vista is the name of the latest release of Microsoft Windows, a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Vista was known byits codename Longhorn. On November 8, 2006, Windows Vista development was completed and is now in the release to manufacturing stage; Microsoft has stated that the scheduled release dates are currently November 30, 2006 for volume license customers and worldwide availability on January 30, 2007. Windows Vista English Edition was released to MSDN subscribers on November 16, 2006. These release dates come more than five years after the release of Windows XP, Microsoft's current consumer and business operating system, making it the longest time span between major releases of Windows. Only early adopters will upgrade to Vista straight away - for example passion...

Hello world, I am back after a long time. I had few busy days and I haven't been able do my blog. I have been out all day of every day over the last few days. Busy meeting friends. Gossipping like old time. Roamed around every corner of Dhaka. Also watched a lot of films over last few days. Some of them being ' Love Actually ' and ' The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift '. Both brilliant films. The Fast and the Furious was a fast paced movie. I don't think it was as good as ' The Fast and the Furious ' , but it was still a good movie. 'Love Actually' was a brilliant film though. I am not really keen on English romantic comedies. The only reason I wanted to watch the film was because there is a remake of 'Love Actually' is being made in Bollywood called ' Salam -E- Ishq ' which is due to be released soon. The film 'Love Actually' just dissolved my heart! I really feel embarrassed to write the word 'dissolved' but ...

Watched Dhoom 2 today. Not as brilliant as I thougt it would be from the commercials. But still quite good by the Indian standard. The first half of the movie was full of unbelievable and unrealistic stunts. Uday Chopra's annoying comedy was really eyesore. Bipasha Basu didn't even have a role in the movie. I think she was just taken in the movie for the bikini shots. Ash and Hrithik were the main attraction of the movie and they kind of lived up to the expectation. Abhishek's performance was okay. Overall rating 7 out of 10. The movie lacked the pace that an action thirller movie requires.

The 14 party alliance have called off the countrywide blockade today following the resignation of the CEC M.A.A. I am glad that I will be able to roam around again Inshallah. Watched Rehna hain tere dil mein this afternoon. I wish my life was like the film. Not to be. It would be like Titanic revisited. Anyway.... Humayun and Nazrul mama came this evening from Australia. We had a really good get together after a long time. Humayun mama is always a good laugh. He is a teacher at Curtin University in Perth, Australia..really great person to speak to. Nazrul Mama is also practicing medicine in an Australian Hospital. Now I know where I got my brain from ;-) Samdani is staying over tonight...

Watched the famous/controversial movie ' The Da Vinci Code ' today. Quite complex yet interesting movie. Fiction as it is, part of the story often seemed to be true. I didn't read the book by Dan Brown. I wish I did. But the movie did glue me to the couch for the whole length of it. Especially, it was very brave to bring of the author & producer to discuss the truth on the Jesus. According to the Islam Jesus was just a prophet, not the son of God. Which was supported in the movie. I do not know much about Constantine of Rome endorsing the Myth of Jesus being son of God. I will have to do more research about it. I wish I was in UK now, I could do the research easily as I have access to lot of information there. Then again I never had enough time to do any sort of reading while I was in UK. I will have to find out the bookshops in Dhaka.

I have just finished watching the news on TV. The USA is proposing to break Iraq down into 3 parts. The northern part will be for the Kurds, the middle part for the Sunnis and the southern part for the Shias. I am absolutely disgusted at this proposal. At first the USA and its allies attacked a sovereign country (for WMD!!). They completely destroyed the country for no good reason. Then they failed to restructure and reunite the country. So they decided to break the country down into 3 different parts! I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a plan of the USA well before they invaded Iraq so that they could destroy a strong and oil rich country in Middle-East. This suspicion arises as the USA and its allies couldn’t find the alleged WMD they claimed that Iraq possessed. I am also surprised to follow up the incidents as they developed in Iraq. The Shias and Sunnis never had such a large scale fighting under Saddam’s regime. (And he was the dictator/killer/oppressor) But now under USA’s patron...

An eventful day. Went to Dhanmondi Rifles Square today to buy groceries from Agora. I then went to Samdani's uni to meet him. Caught a Black Cab back home. Bought Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's autobiography 'In the line of Fire'. Quite an interesting read, not sure if all the content is 100% truth. But still good. Musharraf hasn't been totally honest about 1971 conflict between West Pakistan, East Pakistan and India in the book. He totally missed the massacre and genocide on 25 August 1971 in Dhaka. But at least he said the war was the result of Bhutto and Yahya Khan's arrogance and stupidity. Although it seemed to me that, the book contained fabricated facts, it was an interesting read indeed. I did like some of his ideas. The poor soul tried to be friends with BJP government in India. How was this ever going to be possible? BJP is lead by the most amounts of dunderheads in India. I quite like the present government in India. Dr. Manmohon Singh looks l...

Early start of the day for me. Watching ' Nothing to lose ' with Miraz on Star Movies . Watching the movie for 5th time. Martin Lawrence rocks! Went to Banani cemetry in the afternoon to attend the funeral prayer (Janaja) of Sony apu's father in law. Then went to another relatives house in Banani.

Feel ferverish today. Couldn't go out at all. Shurid bhai & Shoaib bhai came to our house. We had lunch together. They came to see the in laws of Sony apu. Sony apu's father in law passed away yesterday. My Khalamoni and cousins came today as well. It was a quite a good family gathering after a long time. Salim, Shahadat and Miraz came in the evening. Miraz will be staying over tonight.

Watched Casino Royale today. Daniel Craig made a worthy appearance in the movie, fitted in perfectly in the 007's shoe. Brilliant stunts and screenplay made the movie a perfect leisure experience. Well done Daniel, you've made strong point back to your critics!

The blockade in Dhaka has been postponed. I went to Majijheel with Hosnee. Just went there and came back. First time in Matijheel in 4 years. Not much changed though..apart from few high rise buildings. The picture is of Hosnee...

Bright sunny afternoon in dhaka. Just came back from mosque after attending the Zuhr prayer. All the fighting and corruption of Bangladesh are failing to demoralise me. I am still enjoying Bangladesh. I feel better than I have ever felt before. Listening to a song by Pakistani singer Fakhir. The song is ' Kyun mera dil hara '. Dhaka city centre is chaotic with all the meetings of different political parties, my dad is at work in the city centre too. People are reluctantly going about doing their works amid the violence in the city centre. Weird, strange and brave people of Dhaka! Rajib, Samdani and Sabbir came to my house today. I would like to round the blog up with a joke today.. Letter from husband (who is living abroad) to his wife Dear Sweetheart I can't send my salary this month, so I am sending 100 kisses. You are my sweetheart Your husband Allan ============ ========= ========= ========= His wife replied back after some days to her husband Dearest sweetheart, Thanks...

Dress Code: You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary. If we see you wearing Prada shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore you do not need a pay rise. If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a pay rise. If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a pay rise. Sick Days: We will no longer accept a doctor's statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work. Bereavement Leave: This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead friends, relatives or co-workers. Every effort should be made to have non-employees attend the funeral arrangements in your place. In rare cases where employee involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late afternoon. We will be glad...

In a development that could shake up the software industry, Sun is releasing the Java programming language under the General Public License (GPL). Both Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME), which is used on mobile devices, and Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) software, used for desktop applications, are being released immediately under GPLv2. The Java class libraries will be released over the next six months. Rumours that Sun was poised to make Java open source emerged last week, but there may still be surprise over its choice of licence. Sun's own Community Development and Distribution License (CDDL) was another option. Sun's server-side Java Platform Enterprise Edition software is already open sourced under the CDDL, through the GlassFish project. This enterprise edition will now also be available under GPLv2. Sun is also hoping that Linux distributions such as Debian and Fedora will now include Java. At present they don't, because it has not been freely availab...

Watched Baby's day out today. Salim came over in the evening. Had a little chat. Then watched Shaadi se pehle....funny movie. Did some update on my website's image gallery. Going to start working on my www.knowledge-management.info website soon Inshallah.

Watched the movie ' Parineeta ' this evening. Brilliant movie. I have watched a romantic movie after a long long time. Refreshing...

Salam E Ishq O meri jaan Zara Kabul kaar lo Hum se ishq karne ki Jara se bhool kaar lo

Found that fantastic line from Shael's song. It may be is true. There is some kind of innocence that surrounds the first relationship which doesn't exist in the relationships thereafter. Bad news for all the people who didn't succeed in their first relationship! I have been chatting online for straight two days. The boys and girls in Bangladesh are really funny. Really enjoying chatting to them. It's a different experience.

It's public holiday in Bangladesh today (National Revolution and Solidarity Day). Met up with friends in the afternoon. Miraz stayed over last night. Went to KFC with Rana, Rajib and Samdani in the afternoon. Amir phoned me today, saying that he really misses me. Really nice to know that I am still being missed in UK. I miss the life in UK. I had my own space. It was nice. But I have a family here, which I really missed while I was in UK. I can't complain really. Met Hossain Bhai at Gulshan Mosque after Magrib prayer.

Bought another guitar today. Quite funky Bangladeshi guitar. Spent whole afternoon in the Dhaka University area. Bought a copy of Bible. Started to read now. Should be an interesting read.

Went to the airport this morning to see off Arman bhai. He's off to Riyadh for few months on business. He was visibly upset as he was leaving. I knew exactly how he was feeling as I had been the victim of the same scenario for past few years. Hope he has a safe journey. Just found out today that Dhoom 2 will be out on 24th of November. Can't wait. In the evening, met up with Rajib, Russell, Sabbir and Salim. We all walked together for about 2 hours within Uttara- just like the school days. And then sat down next to Uttara Lake. Brought back some old fond memories. Miraz is here again to stay over.

Manusher jibon ta khubi odvut, khub kore kono jinish chaileo majhe majhe pawa jai na. Khubi koshter bepar. Koshto gulo bhular kono oshudh thakle bhalo hoto. "Bindu ami tumi amay ghire britter vitor shudhu tumi acho...matal ami tomar preme, tai orthohin shobi je prem laage"...Tahsan's song...amazing..Miraz gave me the song last night. Went to Bashundhara City in the evening with Salim.

আমার ছোট ভাই তাওহীদকে একটি ডিভিডি রেন্টাল শপ কিনে দিয়েছি। ও সেখান থেকে DVD এবং VCD ভাড়া দেবে।দোকানটি তার ছাত্রাবস্থায় কিছু হাতখরচের টাকা জোগাবে। দোকানটি উত্তরায়।

I have had another average day today. Went out in Uttara to get few stuff. Thats all. This huge amount of recess is giving me enough time for some low level philosophical thought. I also have enough time to look back at the days that have gone past in my life. One thing I have noticed in my life was that, we always try to get closer to some people who do not deserve to be liked by any human being. The reason I am writing this blog today is, I have noticed that in my life, I have tried to get closer to some people at times not realising that, those people are not decent enough to be friends with any human being. And when I realised that I shouldn't have tried to be friends with those people, it was too late by then. I first experienced this when I was in England. Although I met some really good people at work, at uni and within the extended family, I saw the dark side of human nature in some people, who really surprised me. Especially within my extended family, although I had some r...

Spent whole day yesterday on the car. Had to get some parts changed. Went to Ashulia for a drive at night. Tawhid, Salim and Taufique went too. Went to Dhaka New Market and Nilkhet today. Bought some clothes, also bought some household stuff. Getting busier in Dhaka.