:: Tanvier's Time Machine ::

I have discovered a social networking site today. The site is www.perfspot.com . Apparently it is the fastest growing social networking site right now. I am not entirely convinced that this can overtake facebook and become the number one just yet with its current look and networking facilities. It offers most of the usual features of social networking, including newsfeeds, customisable profile options and the option of linking photos to other users' profiles plus unlimited space to upload images and videos. It also provides an URL for the user which is also common features in hi5, myspace and the likes. It does, however, have some extra features which are not available in facebook. For example, it lets the user create his/her own network which wasn’t available in the facebook. This gives the users outside the developed world to include their education and work networks in the site.

Shakira visits Bangladesh to meet the victims of cyclone Sidr.

আজ পবিত্র ঈদ উল আজহা। বিলেতের সবাইকে ঈদের শুভেচ্ছা জানাই। বোনাস হিসেবে একটি কৌতুক। কৌতুকটি আজ মেহের এর কাছ থেকে শুনলাম। যখন 'নাসা' প্রথম মহাশুন্যে নভোচারী পাঠানো শুরু করলো, তখন তারা আবিষ্কার করলো যে শুন্য 'ভর' এ (Zero gravity) বলপেন কাজ করছে না। এই সমস্যা মোকাবিলা করার জন্য নাসার বিজ্ঞানীরা ১০ বছর এবং $১২ বিলিয়ন ব্যয় করে একটি কলম আবিষ্কার করলো যা শুন্য ভর, পানির নিচে, উল্টা করে এবং ৩০০ ডিগ্রী সেলসিয়াস পর্যন্ত তাপমাত্রায় লেখা যায়। কিন্তু রাশিয়ান বিজ্ঞানীরা শুধু পেন্সিল ব্যবহার করেই কাজ চালিয়ে যায়।

An account of events chronicled by the commander of Pakistani occupying forces in 1971 renders rather untrue Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh 's vehement claim that they were not involved in anti-liberation activities, by categorically saying that the Army of Razakars was formed by the erstwhile Pakistan government itself to fight against the liberation forces of Bangladesh. Lt Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi , who led the Pakistani occupation forces as the chief of the eastern command of Pakistan Army in 1971, in his book titled 'The Betrayal of East Pakistan' described the formation of the Army of Razakars, their training, procurement of weapons and other logistics, and the deployment of the paramilitary vigilante force. To train the Razakars, military schools were set up, a separate Razakars Directorate was established, they were provided with machine guns, sten guns, and with intelligence against the Bangalee freedom fighters, and against their supporters and sympathisers. Accor...

1. Introduction Globalisation of organisations is a phenomenon that has received much attention and been extensively discussed at cultural levels as well as at market and business levels. A company is considered global when more than half of its revenue comes from outside its home continent. (Gabrielsson, 2006) In any globalisation process, distribution of goods and services between and within international industrial and consumer markets is of great importance. Globalisation removes the tangible and intangible borders. The intangible borders being the cultures and norms. Globalisation of markets and reorganization of distribution are mutually dependent processes that involve changes in market structures. Contemporary examples of this are the emergence of global supply chains, internationalisation of wholesale, retail and transportation firms and the development of sales via the Internet. In this discussion, the nature of the challenges in creating and maintaining interdependence betwe...

Introduction: ‘Lean production system’ is a very popular generic mass production management system. It is also known as ‘Toyota Production System’. Lean system develops highly responsive systems whereby companies produce “goods and services exactly when they are needed: not before they are needed so that they wait as inventory, nor after they are needed so that it is the customers who have to wait”. (Slack, 2001) It is based on three key principles, eliminate waste, involving everyone and continuous improvement. The lean system was developed by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota in the 1950s. Taiichi was a manufacturing manager and was facing difficulties because of poor supply conditions. He couldn’t plan ahead as he couldn’t predict the supply of raw materials. This was causing cash flow problems as the plan was making more and more unfinished vehicles that couldn’t be sold. To identify which parts were missing he developed a system for linking production stages together very closely a...

Dear readers As most of you know by now, Bangladesh has been hit with worst ever cyclone in its history. The details of the casualty and damaged are still unclear as the affected coastal areas are still out of reach. Several charities are arranging funds to start relief effort. Here are links to couple of charities below.. Muslim Aid , Save The Children , World Vision & Islamic Relief . Please donate generously. Remember, Allah doesnt need our help to save these people from the storm. The storm has been created to test human being, so that it creates an opportunity for the people to help the victims of devastation and get reward from it. The storm is a test on the storm victims as well, who will give the test of ultimate patience. May Allah reward them for thier patience. Allah says in the Qur'an, "Who is he that will Loan to Allah a beautiful loan? for (Allah) will increase it manifold to his credit, and he will have (besides) a liberal Reward . " (Qur'an 57:1...

The latest movie by Humayun Ahmed is brilliant! I loved the movie. It just talks about the all the youngsters' dream in Bangladesh while addressing the social issues as well. Rating 7 out of 10. 'দারুচিনী দ্বীপ' হুমায়ূন আহমেদের সর্বশেষ চলচিত্র।অসাধারণ ছবি হয়েছে। দেখে ভালোই লেগেছে। আমি আজ কয়েকদিন ধরে বাংলা ছবি দেখছি। সবগুলোই ভালো লেগেছে। 'দারুচিনী দ্বীপ' দেখার পর মেহের এর কথা মনে হলো। ওর সেন্ট মার্টিন এ যাবার অনেক সখ ছিলো।বেচারার পরিবার থেকে অনুমতি মেলেনি।

Another venture by renowned Humayun Ahmed. The film is a 100% meaningless movie. But this is not a drawback of the movie. Although the movie is completely meaningless, it does bring a lot of laughter. Good movie to kill idle time. Rating 6 out of 10. হূমায়ুন আহমেদের চলচ্চিত্র 'নয় নম্বর বিপদ সংকেত' তাঁর পরিচালিত অগনিত অর্থহীন ছবিগুলোর মধ্যে অন্যতম। অর্থহীন হলেও ছবিটি দর্শকদের মনে হাসির খোরাক জোগাবে। প্রথমদিকে ছবির গল্প খুবই এলোমেলোভাবে শুরু হলেও ছবিটি শেষ পর্যন্ত্য উপভোগ্য হয়েছে।

Eid Mubarak to everyone. Hope you have attained Taqwa during Ramadan and are in full gear to celebrate the Eid today. May Allah accept all your prayers and wishes.

অনেকদিন ধরেই সুরটি শুনছি।আজ ভাবলাম সবার সাথে ভাগ করি। বেশ কিছুদিন পরে ব্লগ লিখছি। এ কটা দিন খুব ব্যস্ত ছিলাম। পড়াশোনার অসম্ভব চাপ। এক সপ্তাহে যত পড়েছি এত পড়ালেখা শেষ কবে করেছি মনে পড়ছে না।তবুও আনন্দ লাগছে।চ্যালেঞ্জ ভালো লাগছে। অনেকদিন কঠিন চ্যালেঞ্জ পাইনি। আজ শুক্রবার রাত। একটু একা লাগছে। বন্ধুরা সব বাড়ি চলে গেছে। হলে বলতে গেলে আমি একা।

আমার বিলেতের স্বপ্নের অনেক খানি পূর্ণ হতে চলেছে। আমি আমার এমবিএ ক্লাস শুরু করেছি আল্লাহর অশেষ রহমতে।ক্যাম্পাস অনেক নিরিবিলি ম্যানচেস্টারের তুলনায়।খুব ভালো লাগছে।আলহামদুলিল্লাহ। আমি ভার্সিটি হল হাইফিল্ড কোর্ট এ বাস করছি।হলের অন্য ছাত্ররা খুবই ভালো। বেশ মজাই লাগছে এখানে।

আবার ম্যানচেস্টারকে বিদায় বলার পালা। সম্ভবত শেষবারের মত। এবার কোন পিছুটান নেই। চাকরিও ছেড়ে দিয়েছি। আজ অনেকদিন পর ব্লগ লিখছি।এতদিন মন খারাপ ছিলো।একদিকে এত বন্ধু এবং প্রিয়জন ছেড়ে যাবার বেদনা, অন্যদিকে নতুন সম্ভাবনার হাতছানি।আশাকরি আমার ভবিষ্যতের দিনগুলি ভালোই কাটবে ইনশাল্লাহ।

Seldom did an elected leader, especially in parliamentary democracy, receive the type of popular mandate as Khaleda Zia did in 2001. In fact she is the only leader who got elected as prime minister twice (We are not counting the controversial election of February '96) in our country's history. Of the 15 years of our unbroken succession of elected governments she was in power for ten years. In the last election in 2001 her party, the BNP, alone won 194 seats in a parliament of 300 seats. With her allies, her total strength in parliament was 217. With such a mandate and her personal stature as a politician at her peak, she was in a position to totally reshape Bangladesh's political culture and economic prospects. With so many MPs at her command she could have demanded a higher standards of integrity and dedication from them. She could have warned that anyone found wanting in honesty and integrity would be expelled from the party, which would automatically lead, as per our law...

Awesome!! The Bourne Ultimatum , the 3rd and the final part of the Bourne series is just simply breathtaking!! This pacey and action packed movie glued to me to the screen until it finished. The cat and mouse chase was unbelievably realistic. Only downside of the movie-How did Bourne withstand so many car crashes and still walked away from the accident scenes? Rating 8.5 out of 10.

I went to Akbar’s Restaurant in Manchester with couple of friends this evening. We had to wait for about half an hour to be seated, the restaurant was really packed and I had to get myself a drink and seat in the waiting room with friends. The waiting lounge was average. After being guided to our table we were asked for the orders. We had ordered the food. Below is the review of the food we experienced in Akbar’s: Starters: We ordered 3 starters, first of them was Chicken Nambali. It was Breast of chicken pieces marinated, grilled and finally garnished with melting cheese. Served with fried onions, peppers, tomatoes and potatoes. It was totally new stuff for us and we liked it. Tasted great, although it would’ve tasted even better if it was spicier. Then we tried lamb chops. They were delicious and spicy. The best lamb chops I ever had. Really tender and succulent. We also tried Grilled Salmon. It didn’t taste all that different from the Bangladeshi fishes with all the sp...

The student activists of the corrupted political parties are at it again. Just when I started to think that they have been silenced, they have just shown there evil might again. Following on from my previous blog, I spoke to a few students of University of Dhaka (DU). Below, there are some findings from the conversations: The police did raid the halls, but contrary to the reports of student bashing, they didn’t actually beat up any student on the second day of clash. But police did fire tear gas shells in the halls on the 3 rd day of the clash. Most of the students involved in the clash were from the Arts faculty. The Arts faculty mainly draws students from rural areas of Bangladesh. The students from those areas are usually really poor. When they move to Dhaka, they look for some quick cash. And as ever, the corrupted politicians invite them to join the student politics in exchange of money and power and a relatively good lifestyle. The students, who are new to the city environme...

The Simpson Movie is an adaptation of the famous TV series. I quite liked the film although it was kind of an extended version of a The Simpsons on TV. The movie had a lengthy story. But it was quite enjoyable nevertheless. Rating 7 out of 10.

Bangladesh politics has fallen into chaos again. It started off with a small incident- some soldiers based in Dhaka University beaten up some students for no good reason. But this has caused widespread violence in Dhaka University and surrounding areas and subsequently resulted in withdrawal of troops from the university campus. But the students went on protesting against the army and the government and created a chaotic situation in Dhaka by smashing cars and public properties. Police dealt with situation heavily and as a result the violence erupted. The government has imposed curfew in 6 divisional headquarters until further notice, followed by stoppage of mobile phone service and restricted media coverage. While I see the point of students’ anguish, and blame the soldiers responsible for the whole fiasco. I think the students over reacted to the whole situation. The students had no right to burn the cars and smash the properties of the innocent citizens. The university students in B...

আজ আমার ছোট ভাই তাওফিক এর ১৭তম জন্মদিন। অনেক অনেক শুভেচ্ছা তাওফিককে।

According to the research conducted by Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester, the 'Kerala School' from south west India identified the 'infinite series'- one of the basic components of calculus - in about 1350. It is a huge blow to the European scholars who have been priding themselves with the 'invention' by Sir Isaac Newton and German scholar Gottried Leibniz in the late 1600s. The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places. This was essential to today's maths, physics and engineering. Nevertheless, the achievement of Newton can't be denied when it comes to the algorithms of calculus. But according to the researchers, "..other names from the Kerala School, notably Madhava and Nilakantha, should stand shoulder to shoulder with him (Newton)..". Full news article can ...

Action comedy masterpiece. Chris Tucker was amazing again and Jackie Chan was at his usual best. Rush Hour 3 kept me glued to the sit at the cinema for the whole length of the movie with its comedy and action scenes. Jackie Chan has shown sign of age in the movie. Overall rating 8 out of 10.

Right now, my little head is puzzled with questions about human origin after reading a BBC article today. The BBC article reads, "Two hominid fossils discovered in Kenya are challenging a long-held view of human evolution. The broken upper jaw-bone and intact skull from humanlike creatures, or hominids, are described in Nature. Previously, the hominid Homo habilis was thought to have evolved into the more advanced Homo erectus , which evolved into us. Now, habilis and erectus are now thought to be sister species that overlapped in time. The new fossil evidence reveals an overlap of about 500,000 years during which Homo habilis and Homo erectus must have co-existed in the Turkana basin area, the region of East Africa where the fossils were unearthed. "Their co-existence makes it unlikely that Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis," said co-author Professor Meave Leakey, palaeontologist and co-director of the Koobi Fora Research Project. " My question is, if the...

YouTube fans can now download the videos on their PC/PSP/iPods. For downloading the YouTube videos, you need to go on http://vixy.net/ and then copy and paste the YouTube URL in the box. After pasting the URL, you have select an option from the dropdown box for your desired output format. Then click start. The file from YouTube will start to convert in to your desired format. After the conversion, you will get an option to download the file on to your desired hardware. For best results chose the mp4 format for downloading and view the downloaded videos on QuickTime player. Check it out! It’s great!

"Allah has given us mouths, so He will give us food," that was Monwara’s answer to the question about her future amidst the flood. John Sudworth of BBC took a tour to the worst affected areas of Sirajgonj district in Bangladesh. He came across the upbeat Bangladeshis who are used to face natural calamities. To his surprise, he found out, these poor Bangladeshis possess a somehow philosophical view towards life. They brave the calamities and rebuild everything they lose over and over again, year by year. This is what amazes me about these people. The Bangladeshi villagers never get frustrated. They have no idea what depression is. They only know one thing-how to fight. I have lived many years in Bangladesh and I came across these people with enormous fighting spirit day by day. I used to draw inspiration from them in my difficult times. Mr Sudworth rightly pointed out that faith is playing a vital role behind their inspirations. Islam is a comprehensive religion which requ...