I got this interesting e-mail from Mansi Maihar, who claimed to be the “Technical Sourcer” of Google.com Engineering Team:

“It is an exciting time at Google and we are always looking for the very best talent to join us. In a gist, I am looking for engineers for multiple positions like Director, Manager and engineers with Unix Sys Admin and SW background with strong coding skills. Being responsible for running the Google.com website should be an absolute challenge for any Engineer.

We have multiple positions in various locations in the US and Europe. If this prospect is of interest to you, please get in touch with me as I will like to share your resume with the hiring engineers to see if there is match. You may also know engineers with this skill set who are looking for fresh challenges; I will appreciate it if you will pass my contact information to them. I would really appreciate if you can attach your updated resume and let me know which position and location is of your interest.”

I verified carefully, and I’m quite sure that this isn’t spam. The mail was actually “signed” by Google.com, and it was sent from a computer at Google’s Mountain View office.

Just to have an offer from Google is now considered an honour… so I’m honoured. I’ll try replying this person, let’s see what happens.

I finally finished working on my first “complete” Bengali site. Check it out and let me know what you guys think about it. I’m looking for criticisms, so please be honest and let me know the truth.

The site has been tested to work under Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSUSE, and Windows, with Firefox, Konqueror, and IE.

Wouldn’t it be great to have Creative Commons (CC) licenses ported in Bangladeshi jurisdiction? Yeah, it sure would be great and fantastic! And guess what, it’s my latest project now! After more than two months of correspondence with CC internationalization team, I’ve finally received the green signal to proceed.

I’ll be working on porting the version 3.0 of CC licenses, which will replace the present version 2.5 licenses. Please wish me luck; it’s by far the most daring project I’ve ever got involved with!

Good news for Aktel’s post-paid customers! Aktel M2M and M+ subscribers will enjoy both BTTB incoming and outgoing facility from now on. The M2M package originally had mobile to mobile connectivity only. The M+ had an addition feature of BTTB incoming facility, which was the first of it’s kind in Bangladesh.

I’m already happy with my M+ connection which has a lot of cool features, such as single second pulse, 7 minutes of free BTTB incoming, GPRS, 3 FnF numbers, free customer support on 124, and so on. And now with BTTB outgoing facility, I’m even happier. Go, Aktel, go!

• A kind of saliva is produced which cures gum bleeding and prevents accumulation of germs
• Facial muscles get strong and cheeks grow chubby
• Wrinkles of face disappear
• The heart beats at a faster rate enabling more blood towards brain
• 10 minutes of kissing burns about 200 calories, thereby equivalent to a 20 min brisk walk

Interesting, huh?

A day-long workshop titled “Migrating to Linux: Introduction to Open Source Tools” was held at North South University today. It was jointly organized by Bangkadesh Linux Users Alliance and North South University Computer Club. The speakers were BLUA members Toby Phillipe, Mir Mahbub Alamgir, Ahmed Rafiq-ul-Islam, Mohammad Salman, and me.

Speakers: (clock-wise) Russell John, Ahmed Rafiq-ul-Islam, Toby Phillippe, Mir Mahbub Alamgir, and Mohammad Salman. At Boomers, Banani.

The workshop was divided into two sessions. The first session started at 11:30, when I started off by giving introductory lectures on Linux and Open Source software. I did a lot of Microsoft-bashing as well, which was my favourite part. The next presentation was Mr. Mahbub Alamgir’s, who talked about Ubuntu and Kubuntu. He demonstrated a Kubuntu Live CD and guided through the installation process. The lunch break was announced 13:30, and all of us had our lunch at Boomers. The second session started at 14:15. Mr. Alamgir continued his presentation and showed the basic desktop usage. Toby Phillippe, our “bideshi” member was the next presenter. Toby used an OOo Impress presentation and gave a lot of helpful tips to the participants on migrating to Linux from Windows. He talked about the Open Source alternatives of Windows programs, which was appreciated by the participants. His presentation was very professional, and I’m sure that he has a lot of public speaking experience. Ahmed Rafiq-ul-Islam’s presentation was next, who talked about the command line interface and it’s necessities. He taught the basic shell commands that are needed for everyday system administration. Since the participant were new to Linux, they had a little difficulty understanding, but I’m sure all of them enjoyed his presentation. Mohammad Salman was supposed to talk about server setup and administration, but we had to cancel his presentation due to lack of time. We took a quick decision on organising another workshop sometime soon where he’ll show Apache, BIND, mySQL, and sendmail installation and workaround. Overall, the workshop was a success. It had strengthened our ties with NSUCC, who’s support was invaluable. My personal thanks goes to Saumen, who coordinated the event from their side. Thanks to NSUCC president Zia bhai and all the the volunteers who helped enormously. Check out http://gallery.linux.org.bd/thumbnails.php?album=24 for photos of the event.