January 30, 2004
Just wanted to wish everyone a great and happy Eid :) Have fun and take it easy on the food ;)...
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Ok, call me whatever you want to call me, but i just don't get this whole social networking thingie. What's the use ? Why does everyone think it's cool ? Why is everyone so mad about it ? I can't find one good answer to any of these questions. The concept's been around for ages, and i've tried it out more than once, but everytime i never really found any good in it. Six Degrees, LinkedIn, Orkut, Friendster, Tribe and the list goes on and on and on. Why ? Why would anybody need to see a virtual representation of...
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Well, i'm no Apple fan, and i'd most probably get lumps all over my body if i were forced to work with an Apple machine for a long time, but still i believe that nobody should mingle with one and screw it up the way this guy did. Once a machine is sealed, it's sacred, and you only open it up to either fix it or make it more powerful, but you don't do this: I got a shiny new Apple G5 for Christmas. I loved the case, but I'm no Mac user. So I.... Get a brand new dual...
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January 29, 2004
Posted on January 29, 2004 06:35 PM under:
Music
Along with the albums on the sidebar under "Listening To", I've also been listening to Shania Twain's latest album UP!. The album comes on two discs. Disc one known as the Red Disc has all the songs in their regular pop versions, while Disc two known as the Blue Disc has the same songs in their World / Rhythmic Sound mix versions. I have to say that hearing the Red disc, i liked the album, but after hearing the Blue disc, i just loved it. It's got so many middle eastern and eastern sounds in it, it's great. My favourite...
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I just came across what must be one of the most pathetic and cheapest money making schemes on the internet. I can't even think anyone is desperate enough to fall for this, but obviously I'm wrong. The scheme is: A girl goes to ebay and starts an auction in which she's selling 30 or 60 days of being a virtual girlfriend for some really desperate guy. The girl promises to send the winner a letter every week scented with her perfume, a couple of pics, a few emails, maybe an online chat, and that's it. Easy money for any girl....
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Every once in a while i find myself making a switch of email client from Outlook Express to the more sophisticated Outlook, only to jump back to good old Outlook Express after a few days. Yesterday evening i decided to make the switch again. Usually, what pushed me to switch in the past are the task-planning, note-taking and calendar features of Outlook. But after a while, i'd take those features for granted and i'd get pissed off because i can't see a preview of attached pictures in an email, so i switch back to Outlook telling myself i don't need...
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January 28, 2004
Posted on January 28, 2004 06:24 PM under:
Tunisia
So, we're at work, and 4PM comes and the 2nd Tunisian match in the African Cup of Nations begins. It's the match between Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and it's an important one for Tunisia. The football fans sit at their desks working and itching to know what's going on in the stadium, while the rest of us don't really give it much thought. And all of a sudden, one of the guys pulls out a small radio and turns it on loudly for us to hear the commentators announce the first Tunisian goal. Seconds later, and after...
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Posted on January 28, 2004 03:24 PM under:
Cinema
What the hell is it with Apple computers and hollywood movies ? I've nearly never seen a pc in a movie, it's always an Apple machine or laptop. Is there some sort of deal between Apple and the studios ? Or is it that all these producers and directors have a weird big mad love for Apple stuff ? Or is it just based on the looks and the fact that Apple computers look more stylish ? If anyone has an answer, please let me know, it's been bugging me for ages, and it bugs me even more with every...
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Posted on January 28, 2004 01:28 PM under:
Tunisia
Well, the big Eid (as we call it) or more formally Eid El Idh'ha is just around the corner (this weekend), and just like every year, everyone has gone sheep crazy. The big Eid comes with the end of the Hajj, and is the day in which muslims worldwide sacrifice sheep in commemoration of the prophet Abraham's story with his son. They're supposed to take half of the sacrificed sheep for themselves and donate the other half to the poor. But in the world of today, this day has become a contest between people on who gets the biggest sheep...
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January 27, 2004
Joel from Joel On Software just posted about how to get your résumé read. It's a very interesting read, and i fully agree with Joel. I've never been in a position where i decided to recruit someone or not, but i've seen quite a number of CVs in my lifetime anyway, and man do some of them suck ! I think writing a good CV is as important as all your qualifications, because it's the only way you can show your true value and present yourself as a worthy candidate for the job. Interested in knowing more ? Read Joel's...
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First it was mad cow disease... Then came foot and mouth for sheep... And now there's bird flu... What next ? Fish cancer ??!! When are humans going to realize that the more they screw with nature, the more nature is gonna screw them back ?!...
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2004 Oscar Nominees Trailer for Kill Bill 2 movie Super Size Me: What eating three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's could do to you. 100 things to do with your boyfriend or girlfriend instead of sex: This is bullshit. If they've got sex on their minds, whatever they do, it'll lead to sex in the end, lol. Trailer for The Passion of The Christ Top 500 Franchises for 2004...
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I just read an interesting post by Zeldman about why not to design on spec or in other simpler words why not to submit design proposals for RFPs (Requests for Proposals). You can read his full post here: Don't design on spec. The main reasons he gives are: - It's a lot of unpaid work. - Design is only partly decoration. Mainly it is problem solving. You can't create an appropriate design because you don't yet know what problems need to be solved. - It's unsafe for agency and potential client alike. I have to agree with Zeldman on the...
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Does it ever occur to you how disordered the world is today ? Do you ever take a moment from your busy crowded day to just pull yourself back out of the crowd and look around you, look at the people surrounding you, look at the world, and look at yourself ? I do, and believe me it's not a pleasant thing to see. What i see is a world all mixed up in these mad lives we're leading, and people who think they are great and perfect on the outside while they're truly crumbled and disordered on the inside....
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January 26, 2004
This is one of the two new audio jukeboxes (MP3 players in our words) that Philips Electronics announced at CES a couple of weeks ago. The baby in this pic is the hdd120, which they claim is the lightest recording jukebox. It comes with 20 GB storage space, extended battery life, USB 2.0 and Direct MP3 recording. Now that is something. Cost, i hear you ask. They say it should cost $349. Hmmm. By the time it gets here, that price would be multiplied by nearly 3, giving me a price tag of about 900 TDs if i'm optimistic :P...
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Posted on January 26, 2004 12:03 PM under:
Cinema
Last night i watched Basic, a movie i had read about online and which critics bashed. So, i started the movie not expecting much really, although i usually like John Travolta's movies. By the end of the movie, i thought the movie was quite good, although i understand why some people must have not liked it. You know those movies where you think you've got everything all figured out and then it comes up with a twist ? People usually love movies like that, but what if the person who wrote the movie is a bit over-obsessed with the idea...
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Posted on January 26, 2004 11:44 AM under:
Tunisia
So, i was able to catch the opening ceremony and the opening match of the African Cup of Nations on TV this past saturday, and well i have to admit that the ceremony was quite a really good one. The music was great and so was everything that came with it. A very good effort that deserves applause. The match that followed between Tunisia and Rwanda was ok. Tunisia scored first, with Rwanda coming back a few minutes later, and Tunisia ended it with the winning goal near the end of the match. All in all, the team's levels was...
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Posted on January 26, 2004 10:51 AM under:
Tunisia
Well, although i still don't have a satellite dish at home, and am disconnected from the world's satellite TV stations, i've heard quite a lot about the 3 Tunisian contestants who are on the LBC version of Star Academy. After last year's outstanding success of SuperStar on Future Television, this year LBC hit back with Star Academy. I wish the Tunisian contestants all the luck. And may the best win. Bab El Web (a Tunisian portal), has created a special section that follows the steps of the Tunisian contestants. You can check it out here....
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AAAARRRGGGHHHH !!! I just had to go through deleting some 30+ blog comment spams right now, and i tell you, it's definitely not the best way to start your day ! It's a really big pain in the ass... If i had one wish right now it'd be: I wish that all spammers die and rot in hell where they get their asses fried a billion times for every spam message they sent !...
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January 23, 2004
Posted on January 23, 2004 05:00 PM under:
Tunisia
So tomorrow is the opening ceremony for Tunisia 2004, the African Cup of Nations. I expect it to be quite cool as the same people who worked on the Korea Japan 2002 opening ceremony are working on this one. I'm not going to the stadium, but i'll surely try to catch it on TV. The opening match is Tunisia vs. Rwanda. I'm not much of a football fan really, and i only watch a few world level matches from the World Cup or the Euro, so basically, i'm not going to the stadium for any of the games, but i'm...
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Posted on January 23, 2004 09:06 AM under:
Tunisia
I've just recently started a blog ring for Tunisian blogs, and i've called it BlogTunisia. So, if you're Tunisian, and you have a blog, come along and join here and then add the ring code to your blog....
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January 22, 2004
Nokia is offering a really cool promotion for Valentine's Day in Japan this year. The promotion is a chocolate box, containing chocolates, a chocolate mobile phone, and an actual Nokia mobile phone. Now, that's what i call a great idea :) [via Boing Boing]...
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Hit the penguin: Really cool small flash game. 10 Commandments of Coffee making MusicPlasma: Search for music visually. Pictures from Mars: webpage automatically collecting and displaying the newest images from Mars. Helium 3: The reason why humans are looking at the moon again. The George W. Bush Conspiracy Generator...
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Well, yesterday, for the first time ever in my life, someone called me up to tell me that my order was ready earlier than scheduled and that i could go pick it up whenever i wanted to. I couldn't believe it. How come ? I mean, things like that never happen. It's normal for delays to happen, but for something to be ready before schedule, that's impossible. Anyway, it was true. And i've already filed this occurrence for consideration in the Guinness book of records. Well, what was ready ? My new pair of eyeglasses. So, i went and picked...
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January 21, 2004
Posted on January 21, 2004 05:40 PM under:
Memories
Oh, how much i long for one of the old days i used to spend in Islamabad / Pakistan. I visited Pakistan about 4 or 5 times back when i was a teenager; as my dad used to work at the Tunisian embassy there. It would be summer time, and as soon as school ended, we'd be picking up our baggage and leaving Tunisia to go spend the summer with my dad in frying hot Pakistan while tourists were flooding into Tunisia to enjoy the summer and the sea. Back then, Islamabad was one of the most boring cities on...
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I really think shopping and buying are totally different things. I hate doing both, but they're very different. Shopping is when you go out with no specific goal and you just go around from shop to shop, wasting time and looking around with the possibility that you might find something you like and that you just might buy it. Buying is when you go out with something very specific in mind, and you go from shop to shop looking for it to buy. So, if you take this idea one step further, people can be classified in 2 kinds: The...
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January 20, 2004
Yesterday, as i was driving home, i assembled a list of the 10 things i can't live without these days. Here's the list i came up with: My Wife: Romantic, huh ? Well, it's true :) My Family: Even though i might not show it a lot, but still family is very important thing to me. A computer: I'd go mad without one. An internet connection: I'd start itching all over if i lose this. My blog: My brain online, how could i live without that ? Music: The soundtrack to my life, without it, the world would be so...
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Today's Dilbert comic strip is really funny. I can't help but imagine it happening on a plane these days, it'd be so hilarious. More Dilbert....
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January 19, 2004
Well, my blog made it through the nomination phase of the Bloggies, through the Bloggie panel who chose what nominations to pass on to the finals stage, and now it's up the on the Bloggies 2004 site among the 5 nominated blogs to win the Best African or Middle Eastern Blog. So, i call upon all the loyal and unloyal readers of Subzero Blue to pass by the Bloggies 2004 website and vote for this blog. Thank you all in advance :)...
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I've just found this really cool comic strip at comics.com called Working Daze, it's truly funny :) It's mainly about life at work and all, and it really touches on some really funny issues from everyday work life, lol. I've even seen or been through some of the situations the strip makes fun of, which makes it even funnier. I'll surely be checking this one out everyday from now on......
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Posted on January 19, 2004 10:10 AM under:
Cinema
The main movie i saw this past weekend was Frida, a biography of mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who channeled the pain of a crippling injury and her tempestuous marriage into her work. The movie was pretty good, especially the acting, photography and visual style of the movie. I've always liked real life stories, they have this certain feeling of truth in them, which makes them more interesting for me to see. This story was an interesting one, although i didn't relate to it, but i liked the historical background it introduced. All in all, i give this movie 7/10. PS:...
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January 17, 2004
Well, i wanna blog, but i don't have anything to blog about, so what do i do ? I blog that i have nothing to blog. And what use is that ? Well, at least i blogged, and now i won't feel like i have to come up with something to blog, because i know i won't find anything worth blogging. Waste of time ? Maybe, but now the blog-itch is gone, and i can enjoy the rest of my day without thinking about blogging :P Cya......
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January 16, 2004
Recently, i've gone back to playing around with programming at home and trying out things that are either new or that i've always wanted to try but never had time to. And lately i've been playing around with Cold Fusion MX 6.1 and it's Cold Fusion Components as well as it's xml capabilities. ColdFusion, i feel, is somehow the Apple of web programming languages, without the problems that come with Apple's products. It's great, it's easy, it's fast, it gives you the best time-to-market, but still it's not as widely used as the rest of the web programming languages out...
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January 15, 2004
I just found this really cool list about inventions that seem impossible but that actually worked. Here they are: 1. The Space Energy Converter 2. Cold Fusion (of course not the programming language & app. server) 3. System to split water from fuel by using resonance 4. System for sending power wirelessly 5. Anti-Gravity device 6. A metod for trasmutation of elements 7. Orgone Accumulator 8. The Cloudbuster 9. The Rife microscope & frequency generator 10. Electronic Telepathy Device These are all really interesting ideas and inventions that i hope people would seriously work more on bringing to everyday life...
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January 14, 2004
I just remembered this ghost story that supposedly happened in Tunisia. It's quite a well-known one, and i first heard it when i was a kid. I have no idea what reminded me of this, but i remember this and other stories like it nearly made me shit my pants as a child, lol... The story goes as follows: This guy was out for a night walk in downtown Tunis and as he passed by one of the Belvedere Park's gates, he saw this good looking girl all alone and feeling cold. So, he walks up to her and gives...
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Posted on January 14, 2004 12:54 PM under:
Cinema
IMDB have released a list of the Top 250 movies as voted by the users. It's a really cool list. I've seen a lot of these movies and agree that they are among the best movies ever made, although i might not fully agree on the order they're in. For example, i'd rank Godfather II higher than Godfather I, and the Lord Of The Rings trilogy would certainly top my list. Anyway, i'll be trying to see some of the other movies that i don't know yet if i can get my hands on them, some of the stuff dates...
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Posted on January 14, 2004 11:26 AM under:
Memories
The other day, on our way home and as were stopped at a traffic light, a taxi stopped next to us and the driver pulled up the hand break. Automatically, and by the sound of the hand break, i told my wife it was a Peugeot 205, and it was. Of course, i know the sound of a Peugeout 205 hand break and engine because my dad has one and i've driven it quite a number of times, and in fact crashed it quite a few times too :P But, that reminded me of this game i used to play...
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January 12, 2004
Posted on January 12, 2004 09:25 AM under:
Cinema
Well, this weekend, i got to see 2 movies only, and they were: Malèna and Hollywood Homicide. Malèna, featuring Monica Bellucci, was a lot better than i expected. I really liked the movie and enjoyed it a lot. The story, the acting and the soundtrack were very good. It's the story of a kid who develops a crush and falls in love with the hottest woman in the city (Monica, of course), and how he takes us through her story during the movie. It's a really simple idea, but very beautifully presented. I saw it twice, and i wouldn't mind...
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January 09, 2004
What the hell was this guy thinking ? A Croatian man blew up his frozen car after trying to warm it by lighting a fire under the engine. Zlatko Grden, 52, lit some old newspapers under the engine of his Opel Kadett after it failed to start in freezing temperatures. He told local media: "I couldn't start the engine and realised it was frozen. I decided to warm it up. Maybe I used too much paper." Grden, of Donja Stubica near the Croatian capital Zagreb, added: "My lovely car is now destroyed." [via Ananova] Hmmmm... Sure, your lovely car is...
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Bloggies 2004: Vote for this blog at the 2004 Bloggies. Fontifier: Create a cool computer font based on your handwriting. Series of drawings from artist on LSD Apple GarageBand: The hot new music-making software from Apple. PV Comics: Free comics. HP Branded iPod: HP to sell HP branded version of Apple's iPod. Photoshop CS Adds Banknote Image Blocking...
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Well, yesterday, as i dragged my exhausted and extremely hungry self home from work, and as i was going into our building, i noticed we had something in the mail. I thought it was either gonna be the greeting cards we've been waiting for ever since before New Years or Tunisie Telecom telling me that they're coming to install my phone line. Needless to say it was neither, instead i found a little PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) vegetarian starter kit, some sort of magazine that aims to convince me to become a vegan and give up...
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Don't you just love it when you're over-exhausted, just had a delicious dinner and finally get to your bed which is perfectly soft and warm and you're already dreaming of the great sleep you have ahead of you ? And don't you just hate it when after all that, you end up waking in the middle of the night with this sudden weird case of insomnia ? I mean, you're so damn tired your body parts are about to fall apart, but you just can't fall asleep again. And wouldn't you just hate it even more if when you were...
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January 08, 2004
I just found this post about the 2003 Web Design Fashion Trends, and i find it quite interesting. The trends are as follows: The continuing spread of CSS layouts. The use of alternate fonts within a limited choice. Unordered lists are all the rage. Fahrner Image Replacement. The comeback of old fashioned fonts. The comeback of the background image. The humongous page banner. The decline of web skinning. The cluttered front page. Restrained, pale color schemes. For all the details and explanations of each trend, check the full post: 2003 Web Design Fashion Trends....
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Isn't it beautiful when you're lying in bed early in the morning, in the perfect and most comfortable position, with the bed at the perfect warmth, with the pillow at the perfect softness, with the air in the room at the perfect temperature, and the weather outside is cold and the wind is humming you lullaby after lullaby sending you to this magical place. You feel you wanna stay like that forever and just sleep like there's no tomorrow. But then that damn alarm goes off, pissing you off, and telling you to leave all that comfort and beauty, leave...
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January 07, 2004
I just came across this piece called Weblogs: A History and Perspective which, as it's title suggests, talks about the history of weblogs and how the whole phenomenon started, how it developed and what it's become. The article is really interesting and worth reading. I personally love blogging, and i would certainly love to see more and more people i know starting blogs of their own. I feel that blogs really complement the web and put a more human touch to it by offering a wide collection of personal experiences and views....
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Microsoft has launched a direct attack on Linux through a new ad campaign they've started in the US that aims at companies considering Linux on servers. The campaign directs information technology managers to "get the facts" about Linux before buying anything but Windows and points them to a website called Get The Facts on Windows and Linux that contains research on the cost benefits of licensing Microsoft's Windows Server System instead of a Linux-based solution. Of course, most of that research has been commissioned by Microsoft. I've gone through some previously published research on this issue before, and i do...
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