|
|
About Me
Brief Introduction
 |
My name is Jahanzeb Farooq, though people mostly know me by my nick Tippu.
I am originally from Faisalabad, Pakistan. I have done my masters in computer
science and am a software engineer by profession. I was born on 12 August 1979 (yes, yet
another great Leo :-)). This page intends to give a brief personal intro of mine.
For a quick overview of my professional activities and qualification, please hit my profile at LinkedIn here.
|
Short "Biography"
Here is a brief, once sentence biography :-)
of mine: I was born on 12 August 1979 in Faisalabad, Pakistan, moved to Libya with my parents when I was only one, returned to Pakistan with my family in 1992, completed matric (10th) from Laboratory High School (University of Agriculture Faisalabad), F.Sc. from Govt. College Faisalabad, Bachelor of Computer Science from Hamdard University in 2004, worked at Comsdev for short time as software developer, left to Sweden in August 2004 for master studies, completed M.Sc in Computing Science from Umea University in February 2006, worked as research assistant
there for short time, moved to Nice (France) and joined INRIA as R&D software engineer in October 2006, got married in February 2008 (my wife's
homepage),
moved to Copenhagen (Denmark) in January 2008, currently working at
Siemens A/S
as software engineer.
Childhood
I spent 12 years of my childhood in Libya. We returned back to Pakistan in 1992. I loved Libya, and always miss those memorable (and tension free) childhood days, when all I knew was to play and have fun. Those were really crazy days, we had a perfect childhood any child dreams of, full with crazes for cartoons (check my related post here), storybooks, mystery/spy/horror novels, storytelling, wild animals (books, pictures, movies, rubber animals), toys, football (only to extent of watching, and when playing, as goalkeeper, my then passion), picture books, pets (we have had cats, dogs, lamb, pigeon, and even tortoise and donkey baby as pets :-)), heroes and heroic figures, guns, adventurous journeys, treasure
hunts, Michael Jackson (I am his fan since I was 12). wow.. those were undoubtedly the best days of my life, memorable and unforgettable.
One of my lifetime dreams is to visit Libya sometime and the very place
where I spent my childhood.
Personality
I am a good person :) (what else do you expect me to say on my own website?). I have many friends but most of my best friends are still from my school days,
and sadly given that I am living abroad for last 6+
years, I happen to meet them only once in a while. I am
quite a nostalgic person. I find myself very attached to the beautiful memories of past, e.g., I always remember those memorable days of my childhood, my days at high school,
at the university etc etc. I am very passionate about the things I love and activities I am interested in. When it comes to favorites, I am easily and unintentionally inclined to the
bests, e.g. best book,
best software, best movie, best composer (... A.R. Rahman)
etc etc. For this reason whenever I am about to buy something (or e.g. watch some movie), I first read the reviews and ratings and then make my mind up,
and sometime I really hate this habit of mine. Also sometimes I act like workaholics (which by the way I don't always love), especially when I am working on things I have developed
strong interest in.
Ambitions
I did Bachelor of Computer Science from Hamdard University, Pakistan, and M.Sc in Computing Science from Umea University, Sweden.
After my master I worked at INRIA (Sophia Antipolis, France) for two years as R&D software engineer. I was mainly working on implementation of IEEE 802.16 WiMAX (a wireless network technology) for NS-3
(a next generation network simulator). Currently I am with Siemens A/S (Ballerup, Denmark) as a software engineer. I am very passionate about programming and am continuously struggling to become a good, effective programmer, smart and gets things done kind of a programmer.
Interests
This sections can be described in few words:
1. Music - Just can't live without it. I am huge fan of
A. R. Rahman, a true Rahmaniac in fact (join ARRahmanFans, the biggest online community of his fans here),
and a seasoned fan
of the King of Pop Michael Jackson. I am a fan of
Junoon as well,
world's best Sufi Rock band. I listen to a lot of film soundtracks as well,
I am fan of Hans Zimmer and like quite a few OSTs by Alexandre Desplat as well.
2. Books - I love reading books, mostly professional/technical books. I recently compiled a list of some of the
classic books for software engineers (see at Amazon also.) as well as a list of recommended
introductory books on CS. I have some reviews at Amazon.com as well. My reviews can be read here. I also read non-technical books in my leisure time. For those interested here is a list of some of the best books on religion and another on Pakistan.
3. Games/Resident Evil - I am a huge fan of Resident Evil games and
believe
Resident Evil 1 as one of the greatest milestones in video game history. And the game I enjoyed and had fun the most in my life was Resident Evil 3, oh man can't forget the way Nemesis freaked me and my brother out all the time. It was an unforgettable experience. However at the same time I am quite disappointed that the game which once stunned the world with its sheer
brilliance and the survival horror is now being converted into a dumb action game which even a 5 years old can beat easily in couple of hours. I sincerely hope Shinji Mikami someday returns
back to Capcom to rescue this historical game series. Another game in the same genre
I was very fond of that time was Silent Hill, I didn't get time to experience its latest installments but I hope it didn't meet with the same fate as Resident Evil
did.
4. Movies - I'm a huge fan of Leonard DiCaprio, Christopher Nolan, David
Fincher, Peter Jackson, as well as Al Pacino, Tom Cruise,
Christian Bale, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scrosese, James Cameron, Quentin
Tarantino, Guillermo del Toro and 90% of Pixar's offerings.
My Name
Tippu is my nick name. My grandfather called me by this name, inspired by Tippu Sultan
(1750-1799), the great ruler and freedom fighter. The nick is so common that sometime people even don't know what my real name is. My real name is Jahanzeb Farooq. Moreover, my surname Farooq is not my father's name or family name, instead my father attached it with my name because Hazrat Umar Farooq (584-644), the second of the four Khulafa ar-Rashidin (Rightfully-guided Caliphs), is his ideal personality. "Farooq" means the one who can distinguish between truth and falsehood. My father's name is Muhammad Abdul Ghafoor. To avoid confusions I mostly use Jahanzeb Tippu as my full name.
Last Update: July 2, 2011 |
|
