December 31, 2003
I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year 2004 :) May it be a great year, full of happy events, success and prosperity for Me & my wife first of all, and then the rest of the world :P Of course, a bunch of special wishes to the people who read this blog, and extra special wishes to the loyal readers who come back time and again ;) I hope we hear less about war and more about peace in this next year. I hope we hear less about poverty and pain and more about prosperity and well-being....
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I just came across a list of the things NOT to do during "Return Of The King". It's so hilarious... Here are the ones i loved most, lol... 1. Stand up halfway through the movie and yell loudly, "Wait... where the hell is Harry Potter?" 2. Block the entrance to the theater while screaming: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" - After the movie, say "Lucas could have done it better." 3. Play a drinking game where you have to take a sip every time someone says: "The Ring." 4. Point and laugh whenever someone dies. 5. Ask everyone around you if...
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Here's a list of the Top 10 dumbest quotes of 2003, lol... #10: "I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman." - Arnold Schwarzenegger, during the California recall campaign #9: When U.S. interrogators asked Saddam Hussein how he was, he responded: "I am sad because my people are in bondage." When offered a glass of water, he replied: "If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom and how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage?" #8: "You think you are big enough to make me, you little...
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Posted on December 31, 2003 08:27 AM under:
Cinema
Now, that was WOOOOW ! One of the greatest movies of all time. Last night, i finally got to cool my itching desire to watch The Return Of The King, and well, it was awesome to say the least. It's a great end to the trilogy, and most probably the best of the three movie, although it's a bit hard to compare, they're all perfect. The battles were great as usual, the effects dazzling, the actors amazing, the landscapes breathtaking and everything all so grand. Although it was longer than your average movie, it didn't lose my attention for one...
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December 30, 2003
So, it's been exactly 6 months since i've started blogging. The results: 196 published blogs, a number of loyal readers, an average of about 75-80 visitors a day, a peak day yesterday with 128 visitors, and well that's about it :P Anyway, what i think is really interesting is how the blog has evolved from back then to now. At first, i started the blog just for the sake of having a blog, and that was the easy part, but then came my biggest problem; what the hell was i gonna blog about ? One day i'd think about making...
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The Pew Internet and American Life Project began chronicling the internet in March 2000. Back then 52 million Americans logged onto the Internet each day. By this past August, that figure had swelled 27 percent, to 66 million. Now, for the first time, the Internet research project by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts has done a comparative analysis of the data collected since the project?s inception. In a report released last week, there was ample evidence that the Internet has become mainstream. DOH ?! Now that's one hell of a discovery ! You'd never know if they didn't tell ya,...
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This is an interesting list the guys at yourDictionary.com released of the top 10 words in 2003: embedded blog SARS spam taikonaut Bushism allision recall Middangeard celibacy Plus, another cool fact: Most frequently spoken word on the Planet: OK Still the most popular word in languages around the world. "OK" originated in a joke in the 1830's, spelled "oll korrekt" in Boston newspapers, the joke being, both words were incorrect. It became so popular, that it was soon abbreviated to simply "O. K." Despite its popularity, the word would have fallen by the wayside had not Martin van Buren, called...
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So, i took this other longer test Houssein told me about called Political Compass, and it's results say that i'm economically more to the left and socially a bit libertarian. And this is where they put me on a chart: So, i'm there with Nelson Mandela & The Dalai Lama. Quite interesting. But even though, i'm sure i'd get along a lot better with them than with the people in the other areas of the graph, i still don't think an online test like this no matter how long it is (this one is 6 pages long) can really define...
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December 29, 2003
So, i took this short quiz on the net, and well it says that my political philosophy is centrist. According to their definition: Centrists favor selective government intervention and emphasize practical solutions to current problems. They tend to keep an open mind on new issues. Many centrists feel that government serves as a check on excessive liberty. Hmmm... Some of it sounds like me... But then again, i can't truly tell. The word "centrist" seems too big a word to be defined in such few words, so until i know the full definition, i won't commit to saying that i...
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Well, i don't know if i should be happy or not about this, but i got my first piece of blog spam. I'm not sure if that should be a good sign that my blog is gaining some popularity, thereby pushing these people to add it on their must-spam list. Or if my blog is just a dumb target on their spam-if-you-have-nothing-else-to-do list, lol... What's funny though is that they chose to put their spam in the comments on a post in which i talked about spam and posted a funny spam email message. Spammers with a sense of humour,...
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Posted on December 29, 2003 09:04 AM under:
Cinema
So, yesterday, we went to downtown Tunis to check out if we still could get tickets to this one-man-show for New Year's Eve, and as we were there, we found out this Egyptian movie called Sahar El Layaly was debuting in one of the cinemas and that some of the stars of the movie would be there. So, we thought we'd go for it and check the movie out. The movie was great. I really enjoyed it. The actors in this movie did a great job and were very good. The 8 main stars were: Sherif Mounir, Mona Zaki, Hanan...
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Posted on December 29, 2003 08:27 AM under:
Cinema
This weekend, i rented Chicago, the movie. I've been wanting to watch this movie for a long time now, and i even rented it a few months ago, but never got to watch it. A number of people i know didn't like the movie, so that kind of pushed it a bit down my priority list. Anyway, i finally got to see it. And well, i saw it, not once, not twice but 5 times over this weekend. In short, i loved it. The acting is great, the music is beautiful, the singing is amazing, and the performances are so...
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December 26, 2003
I was just reading this interesting article about Apple and the limits of innovation, when i found this set of interesting tips on getting innovation right. If Apple teaches us anything, it's that effective innovation is about more than building beautiful cool things. A few thoughts for innovating well in your own shop: Not All Innovation Is Equal Technical innovation will earn you lots of adoring fans (think Apple). Business-model innovation will earn you lots of money (think Dell). Innovate for Cash, Not Cachet If your cool new thing doesn't generate enough money to cover costs and make a profit,...
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December 25, 2003
I just came across this interesting list of the 10 technologies to watch in 2004. So here they are by category and with my comments in between. 1. Home networking : Ultra-wideband Ah, pure delight. An ultra-wideband wireless network at home would be a dream come true for me :) 2. Supply chain : RFID There's been quite a buzz about RFIDs in this past year, some people loving them and some people saying they're a threat to privacy. My opinion is that they're a great way to keep accurate records of stock and all, but if they go further...
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December 24, 2003
An Israeli company has required thousands of Chinese workers to sign a contract promising not to have sex with Israelis or try to convert them. According to the document, male workers cannot come into contact with Israeli women - including prostitutes - become their lovers or marry them. Israeli advocates of foreign workers - who come also from Thailand, the Philippines and Romania - say they are held by employers in nearly slave-like conditions, and their bosses frequently take their passports and refuse to pay them. [via News.com.au] Hmmm, interesting, don't you think ?...
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Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British newspaper said. An unnamed Western intelligence source in the Middle East told the Express: "Saddam was not captured as a result of any American or British intelligence..." [via Yahoo News] So, there goes the big empty victory show they put up....
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December 23, 2003
Another interesting list of the top design mistakes in 2003 from Jakob Nielsen's useit.com. Here's the list: 1. Unclear Statement of Purpose 2. New URLs for Archived Content 3. Undated Content 4. Small Thumbnail Images of Big, Detailed Photos 5. Overly detailed ALT Text 6. No "What-If" Support 7. Long Lists that Can't Be Winnowed by Attributes 8. Products Sorted Only by Brand 9. Overly Restrictive Form Entry 10. Pages That Link to Themselves For the details check out the full article: Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003....
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Google Zeitgeist: Search patterns, trends, and surprises according to Google Xhtml Friends Network: a simple way to represent human relationships using hyperlinks LinkedIn: Professional social networking Mailinator: A very interesting service for people who don't want spam...
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December 22, 2003
Posted on December 22, 2003 04:59 PM under:
Everyday Me
Well, recently i've been doing a lot of thinking about myself, how i treat people, how people treat me back, how i handle certain situations, and lots of other things. And well i have to honestly say that i'm not all that satisfied. It's not that i'm doing anything wrong or treating anyone badly, in fact it's the contrary, i'm doing everything right and treating everyone great, which seems to be something wrong in this twisted world of ours. It pisses me off how people interpret your kindness and niceness as weakness, your respect and caring as a lack of...
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So, we went to the M6 Music Live Concert at Médina Mediterranea in Yasmine Hammamet on Saturday night, and it was great and a lot of fun :) First of all, i have to say WOW, i loved the Médina, it is great ! A really beautiful reincarnation of the old Tunisian Médinas, and very well done too. It totally brings a number of amazing places to life. I hear that they'll also start renting old-medina-style uniforms for visitors to wear while they're in the medina, in order to give them a complete medina experience. Now to the concert. It...
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Well, well, well, It turns out that rumour i heard about Michael Jackson converting to Islam was not a rumour after all. New York: "Michael Jackson became a member of the black group Nation of Islam, the New York Post tabloid reported. The newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying that Jackson became a member of the black Muslim organisation led by Louis Farrakhan on Wednesday night. "The King of Pop is restyling himself Jacko X". Farrakhan?s organisation, which is controversial because of its leaders? anti-Jewish declarations, would not comment on the report. Jermaine Jackson, another ex-member of the Jackson Five...
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December 20, 2003
We won tickets to the M6 Music Live concert at Médina Mediterranea in Yasmine Hammamet today, so that's cool. We'll be picking up some friends of mine from work and going together. Hopefully it'll be some nice fun :) It's a shame though that 2 good friends of ours who were supposed to be coming along too won't be able to because of their sickness. Next time guys :) A number of international artists will be performing at the concert, so that should be real cool. Médina Mediterranea is a whole old-style city that was recently built in the touristic...
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Posted on December 20, 2003 12:00 PM under:
Now everything makes sense... [via eclecticism]...
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December 19, 2003
This is an artist's rendering of a night view of the Freedom Tower (which is proposed to restore Lower Manhattan's skyline instead of the Twin Towers), center, as seen from the south. At left are the Empire State Building, and Statue of Liberty. The Freedom Tower will be the world's tallest building, according to the architects, who unveiled the revised model Friday. The tower, designed to be a centerpiece of the rebuilding plan for the World Trade Center site, will rise 1,776 feet -- a nod to the year the United States declared its independence. Looks really cool, huh ?...
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A free trip to Australia in return for sperm ! Now that's a pretty interesting offer, lol... In an advertisement that has been running in Canada's University of Calgary student newspaper Gauntlet, an Australian fertility clinic is offering men between 18 and 40 a two-week holiday in the rural city of Albury in return for sperm. And, There's no catch -- the men just have to be healthy, mentally fit, pass a blood test and a semen analysis and undergo counseling. In return, they have to be prepared to produce semen every second day and be identified as the donor....
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December 18, 2003
For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented. Thomas Kean, appointed by the Bush administration and a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame. "As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen." He also goes on: "There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly...
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December 17, 2003
A British company is offering a brand-new computer for free to every UK household and even promising to replace it with a new machine after three years. The catch ? London-based Metronomy says that in return for a free IBM personal computer worth 800 pounds ($1,400 U.S.), customers will have to bear with one minute of on-screen advertising for every 20 minutes of computer use. And each household will have to use the computer for at least 30 hours a month (about an hour a day). Ouch ! Now that is a true pain in the neck and a bunch...
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I read this interesting article A Net of Control in Newsweek magazine a few days ago, and i just found it again on the net, so i thought i'd post the link. It talks about how the freedom we've enjoyed on the internet for years may just be stolen from us, and that the Internet could become a tool of corporate and government power because of the updates now in the works. Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where anonymity is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for....
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According to Bill Gates, Microsoft's next version of Windows, which is currently code-named Longhorn and is due out late 2005 / early 2006, will cost them more than it cost the US government to put a man on the moon. Quite interesting. I can't wait to see what the guys at Microsoft have hidden up their sleeves. From The Inquirer. [via eclecticism]...
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December 16, 2003
It seems like Google don't find it enough to just search information on websites, they want to go further and extend into the offline world, and start searching information that's in books too. According to their Google Print FAQ page, they say: Google's mission is to provide access to all the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. It turns out that not all the world's information is already on the Internet, so Google has been experimenting with a number of publishers to test their content online. During this trial, publishers' content is hosted by Google and is...
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Posted on December 16, 2003 11:43 AM under:
Cinema
Other movies i rented and saw this weekend are: Bad Boys II: This is as much fun as the first one, and with a soundtrack which is as good or even better. Martin Lawrence and Will Smith are great together and so funny. I watched the movie twice and wouldn't mind seeing it again. The Italian Job: I just love this type of movies. Heists are one of my movie fetishes :P So, basically any movie from this genre is a must see for me. This one was done pretty well, and i really liked it. Not too complicated or...
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Posted on December 16, 2003 09:37 AM under:
I got an email from Sony yesterday with the link to the Spider-Man 2 Teaser Trailer, but i couldn't share it till today because the blog was down. Check it out and enjoy :) I can't wait for this one to come out. I loved the first one, and it looks like this one could be even better....
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Posted on December 16, 2003 08:59 AM under:
Everyday Me
Well, as some must have noticed, Subzero Blue (this blog) was offline during most of Dec. 15 & part of Dec. 16. This downtime was on purpose, and as a manifestation of this blog's everlasting support for a very important cause ! Oh, ok, i'm lying, loool... I do strongly support a lot of important causes fully, but i regret to say that the downtime was for purely technical problems this time. It was a problem with the hosting and all. Anyway, thanks to Houssein (THE MAN), we're up again on a new host; faster, better and stronger. Hip Hip,...
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December 15, 2003
So Saddam Hussein has finally been captured. I was a bit surprised and shocked by the news yesterday, not because i like Saddam, but because i wasn't expecting him to be caught at all. Anyway, i think it's good he was caught and that he will be put on trial for all the crimes he did. I knew a lot of people in Jordan who were from Iraq, and i've heard my share of stories about life in Iraq and how Saddam and his sons were treating the people. Of course, there were equally as much stories about the disastrous...
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December 13, 2003
Houssein told me about this when we met in Tunis, but he forgot the exact words, anyway today while surfing around, i found it. If you go to google and type in "miserable failure" and then click "I'm feeling lucky", you'll actually find yourself on the George Bush biography page of the White House's website. Interesting, funny and very true i think ;) Btw, another related thingie i found is this: Resume of George W. Bush....
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"Time asks no questions, it goes on without you. Leaving you behind if you can’t stand the pace. The world keeps on spinning, can’t stop it if you tried to. The best part is danger staring you in the face" From You Gotta Be By Des'ree....
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Posted on December 13, 2003 06:17 PM under:
Cinema
I rented the DVD for Anger Management last night, and I have to say that it's the best Adam Sandler movie as yet, and in fact the best Comedy movie I've seen this year. The movie is totally side-cracking hilarious, and I've already seen it twice. Adam Sandler & Jack Nicholson are a great match. And John Turturro is amazing, he steals every scene he's in and never fails to break me into laughter. Everything in this movie is perfectly put together to make a fun and very enjoyable movie experience. A true must see. Other than a great laugh...
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More Google search features Extensive collection of airline sick bags. Save Disney The Best of Hubble...
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December 12, 2003
Well this little test says my Digital IQ is 111, which makes me out to be a Digital Ace. But, well, i know i deserve more :P If i only had the money to buy all the gadgets i want and were in a country where i could hook up to wireless hotspots and networks, i'd have aced the test, lol... You can take the test yourself over here, then come back and comment your score ;)...
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Today, i finally got around to uninstalling the beta developer release of Macromedia Central, and installing the final release of it for a spin. I think the idea behind Central is a really good one, and one that holds a lot of potential if it catches on with more and more developers. The idea of a rich client interface based on Flash running outside the browser mainly offline and partially online (to get data), is a really catchy one, and i for one can think of a load of ideas for applications that can be run inside Central. I'm already...
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Two people are lost in the desert. They are dying from hunger and thirst. Finally, they come to a high wall. On the other side they can hear the sound of a waterfall and birds singing. Above, they can see the branches of a lush tree extending over the top of the wall. Its fruit look delicious. One of them manages to climb over the wall and disappears down the other side. The other, instead, returns to the desert to help other lost travelers find their way to the oasis. Moral of the story: Paradise is nothing without others to...
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December 11, 2003
A while back, with a growing number of news sites and blogs to keep up with piling up in my favourites and blogroll, i thought it was about time i got myself a good RSS reader. I started by trying out NewsDesk, which i didn't like, although i don't really remember why, i just know it didn't click for me. After it i tried FeedDemon by Nick Bradbury, which is pretty good, but still in Beta, so i have to wait for that till it's done. Now, i'm actually using SharpReader, which is quite a good program, and does what...
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December 10, 2003
It's unbelievable. Just this past Sunday, i was wondering how weird it was that winter hadn't started yet, even though we were well into December. And KABAAM!, i wake up the following morning and it's freezing cold. Ok, it doesn't snow that often in Tunisia, and the only places it does are in the North-West of the country. So maybe it's easy to think it's not as cold as other countries that are always covered in snow, but well i disagree. Tunisia is a coastal country with the mediterranean sea as most of it's North and East side borders, which...
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Posted on December 10, 2003 09:33 AM under:
Cinema
I got to see "Gigli" a few days ago, a movie the critics slammed and made out to be one of the worst movies this year. And well, i beg to differ. It's no blockbuster by all means, and no overwhelming experience, but it's not nearly as bad as they pictured it to be. It's sort of a light nice movie you should just cruise through and try to enjoy for what it is. Maybe the fact that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are in it, and that they are the hot topic in Hollywood, made expectations high for the...
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Breaking the Gigapixel Barrier Coke to launch online music service How Dean Could Win . . . George W. Bush G. I. Joke Action Figure...
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