High Morale Makes Creativity Cheap
"In my experience, the thing that has the most significant impact on a movie's budget -- but never shows up in a budget -- is morale. If you have low morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about 25 cents of value. If you have high morale, for every $1 you spend, you get about $3 of value. Companies should pay much more attention to morale."-- Brad Bird, Pixar; 'Pixar's Brad Bird on fostering innovation in the workplace'
[Via: Kottke]
Tunis International Book Fair 2008
Something you can know for sure about me is that I never miss a book fair; as a book worm, that's the stuff I live off of.
Tunis' annual international book fair opened yesterday, mainly today for the public, and so the plan was clear, we'd go book shopping today.
As has been the case over the past years, there's a big percentage of religious books, the same ones, just published and packaged differently, all over the fair; some uninteresting politics books here; some children books there; some whatever elsewhere; ...etc.
And the big challenge is to dig through all of that to find some real gems and interesting books. As I never miss these book fairs, I know where to go now to find the stuff I'm looking for, although I keep an eye open for other surprises.
The booths I always visit are:
- Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon (For Arabic books)
- Maktabat Al Madbouli, Egypt (Arabic books)
- Univers du Livre, Tunisia (English books)
- Maktabat Jareer, Saudi Arabia (Arabic books)
I'm quite happy with what I've accomplished today and the books I got to buy, both the ones in Arabic and the ones in English.
I'll be going back again, maybe tomorrow, to revisit some booths, and to maybe get some French books too.
If you have some other must-visit booths, please do leave a comment telling us about it.
Über Geek Wedding Rings
Awesome wedding rings for the geeks among us...
The female ring has a choice of four opaque colors: turquoise, white, orange or black. The male ring stands tall and dramatically transparent.
links for 2008-04-18
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A blog dedicated to new Arab technology startups and services, profiling and reviewing them, providing interesting market news and information, and sharing tips and advice for entrepreneurs.
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A list of problems that have been solved by the fictional character MacGyver from the television series of the same name.
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How to use an Indian toilet when you're traveling and you really have to.
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Nick Veasey uses x-ray technology to create mesmerizing and intriguing art.
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A collection of pictures showing some fine spray paint creations.
StartUpArabia, Everything About Arab Startups
Recently, I've been very busy working on a project that I'm very passionate about and that I personally view as an important community project really.
Today, I think it's gotten to a stage where I can launch it for everyone to check out and have access to.
The project is StartUpArabia, a weblog dedicated to new Arab technology startups and services, profiling and reviewing them, providing interesting market news and information, and sharing tips and advice for the entrepreneurs behind them.
In addition to covering these new startups, existing services and companies that are making interesting new changes and big steps in the Arab world will be mentioned and discussed.
The idea and goal behind this project for me is to give a push to Arab entrepreneurs and the startups they've started by shedding the light on them and introducing them to a wider audience, and providing them with information that could come in very handy for them.
Another goal is to help promote a whole Arab startup culture that brings entrepreneurs, to-be-entrepreneurs and people who are interested in startups from the Arab region together, creating a better buzz, opening more doors, and really making the Arab world a new hub for creative ideas and projects.
Something my friend Isam Bayazidi said when he took the blog for a beta spin, and which I think portrays one of the main reasons behind me launching this project in the first place is that, and I'm paraphrasing here: It's easier to hear and know about a newly launched one-man startup in San Francisco than an Arab startup that has been working hard for the two past years.
That is so true, we have many talented people who come up with very cool ideas and projects, some of them work on them and launch them from their own bedrooms or garages, some of them have a company behind them to support them a bit more, and they all do some really great work, but many people don't even hear about them in the first place, they don't get the chance nor the support to keep their projects going, and they end up by shutting them down. StartUpArabia aims to change all that.
I know the project sounds very ambitious, but believe me that's only the beginning of what I have in mind and where I want to take this, and it's all very possible. Up to now, I've had some very positive and encouraging feedback from the people I shared the project with.
Please do take the time to pass by StartUpArabia and take a little tour, I've already put up a dozen or so interesting posts for you to read. If you have any ideas, thoughts, suggestions or anything at all, please do not hesitate to share them with me, they are more than welcome and will be greatly appreciated.
If you have any startups you'd like me to write about, please do share, so that we can spread the love even more and get more people covered and promoted.
Apr 15: 
