June 30, 2004
Here is a selection of posts from the past year in no specific order. 10 Golden Rules for the IT Services Sector Words Women Use... Women in Islam What if Microsoft really acquired Macromedia ? Time Travel Arab Unity Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music Terrorism Anti-semitism Redefined Hi Magazine To-Do list for when i go to Jordan Auto Analysis Computer One-liners Religions Ramadhan: Before & After Social Networking Nonsense World of Psychos 10 Things I Can't Live Without Mad Driving & Crazy Pedestrians WhiteHouse® What you get when you marry a programmer Marriage & Genetics Full Stop! New Beginning! Personality...
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Posted on June 30, 2004 09:46 AM under:
Cinema
Every now and then I compile a list of the latest movies I've seen with a short review on them and then score them out of 10. So, here are the movies I've seen recently and what I think of them. Runaway Jury, Big Fish, Freaky Friday, Johnny English, Legally Blonde 2 and Master & Commander....
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June 29, 2004
Today, last year, I started blogging. Yep, today is this blog's first year anniversary. WOW, how time flies by and how much fun it has been... My first official blog post was about the NDC 2003 (North Africa Developer Conference). And man has it been a long way from there. Long but fast. It all started with a little blog on Blog City that I never posted anything on :P Then I finally started writing when I moved to BlogSpot. And finally, I became a blog addict after moving the blog under Houssein's Rundom site. A big thank you to...
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As if to confirm what I said yesterday about the handover not being such a big deal and that it's basically the Americans handing over the rule to themselves, this comes out: U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer has issued a raft of edicts revising Iraq's legal code and has appointed at least two dozen Iraqis to government jobs with multi-year terms in an attempt to promote his concepts of governance long after the planned handover of political authority on Wednesday. Some of the orders signed by Bremer, which will remain in effect unless overturned by Iraq's interim government, restrict the...
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June 28, 2004
Designed to name and shame the best or worst anti-Muslims in Britain and beyond, the second annual Islamophobic awards ceremony took place in London last Saturday evening. The awards were handed out at the Islamic Centre for England, in West London - although not surprisingly, none of the winners stepped up to receive them. Here are the winners: Most Islamophobic British politician: British National Party leader Nick Griffin This was most notably due to his "Muslim or free/fair/democratic - but not both" round of speeches during the recent UK local elections. Most Islamophobic International Politician: Ariel Sharon and Jacques Chirac...
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So, 2 days earlier than the announced deadline, the CPA has handed Iraq over to the interim Iraqi Government. I'm sure the media will make a really big deal out of this and portray it as one of the greatest historic events of this decade. But well, honestly, I don't see anything big or different about it. An American led Authority is handing over sovereignty and rule to an American puppeted Iraqi government. The American army will still be in Iraq, in fact there could be more on the way, and at the end of the day the final say...
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June 25, 2004
Well, for a limited time period only, I'm offering to freelance as a CEO. So if you are interested in having me run your company; email me with a brief about your company and a fat juicy financial offer. A picture of my main secretary would be a nice option to include with your email if possible. This offer is mainly targeted at big multinational companies. Anyway, if you're not that big, but you still think you are worth my time, send me an email and I'll consider reading it. Btw, I have no experience running a company at all....
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June 24, 2004
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. Buddha...
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Microsoft announced that it will boost storage limits in its Hotmail Web e-mail service from 2 megabytes to 250MB and its paid e-mail service, which costs $19.95 a year, from 10MB to 2 gigabytes. The changes will begin in early July. Another thank you to Google for shaking up the free webmail market....
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Posted on June 24, 2004 09:21 AM under:
Link Dump
NY Times list of the best 1000 movies The Top 25 Weirdest Items You Can Buy on Amazon How to transfer mail from your current mail app into Gmail DRM and copyright by Cory Doctorow to Microsoft's Research Group Web browser features that would enhance Web application development History of Programming Languages chart 14 defining characteristics of fascism Getting More Out Of Gmail The Gallery of Super-Dudes (NOT!)...
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LOL... Isn't that a Deja Vu for us all :P [Comic: Working Daze]...
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June 23, 2004
The reality television craze is set to enter Australian politics, with the launch of a programme that encourages viewers to select candidates to run in national Senate elections. Channel Seven on Wednesday said the programme Vote For Me would audition ordinary Australians who believed they could contribute to national affairs. A panel of experts will select 18 candidates - three for each of Australia's six states - before the audience is asked to use mobile phone text messages to whittle them down to one candidate per state. The winners will receive $6800 campaign funding and receive daily airtime on...
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Posted on June 23, 2004 10:36 AM under:
Tunisia
So, the Tabarka Jazz Festival is just around the corner, and everyone's getting their plans ready to go to one concert or another. The schedule this year is as follows: 02/07/2004 : Buena Vista Social Club 03/07/2004 : Billy Paul 04/07/2004 : Archie Shepp 06/07/2004 : Manu De Bango & Ray Lema 07/07/2004 : Mc Coy Tyner 08/07/2004 : Captain Mercier, Charlier Sourisse & Gnaoua 09/07/2004 : Romane 10/07/2004 : Liz Mc Comb I'm not sure I'll be going to any of the concerts, although I find the first two quite interesting and cool....
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June 22, 2004
... given the way things are in the popular media, people are bound to think that way. What the Glasgow group has found is that a great majority of people think that the Palestinians are the occupiers of Israeli land, and some even think that they - the Palestinians - are refugees from Afghanistan... Jalan Jalan...
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Suheir Hammad performing Beyond Words at the 21st National ADC Convention, 12 June 2004. [Via Je Blog] Palestinian-American poet and political activist Suheir Hammad has published a book of poems, Born Palestinian, Born Black, and a memoir,... Recipient of the Audre Lourde Writing Award from Hunter College, the Morris Center for Healing Poetry Award, and a New York Mills Artist Residency in Minnesota, Suheir is a frequent reader at New York reading venues,......
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June 21, 2004
SpaceShipOne, the first private space craft was launched today and reached an altitude above 62.5 miles (100 km) during its brief flight, making it the first privately built craft to fly in space. The space plane was carried aloft to about 50,000 feet by the jet White Knight. From there SpaceShipOne launched into space. Shortly after, the space vehicle landed safely at the same place from which it took off. SpaceShipOne was financed by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen and designed by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites. Now, this is really cool......
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Syria is preparing a law that would prohibit trade dealings with the United States in response to U.S. sanctions imposed on the Arab country last month, Syrian legislators said Saturday. More than 130 members of the 250-seat legislature have prepared a draft of the "America Accountability Act" that would impose "strict sanctions" on American interests in Syria. In a statement faxed to The Associated Press in Damascus, parliament officials said the draft law is a response to "Washington's policy in the region and its unlimited support and bias for Israeli policies and practices and to the Syria Accountability Act."...
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While no one was looking, something historic happened in the Middle East. The Palestinian intifada is over, and the Palestinians have lost ... Israel is now defining a new equilibrium that will reign for years to come... Charles Krauthammer Israel's Intifada Victory June 18, 2004 Even if the Arabs lower their heads and swallow their shame and anger forever, it won't work. A structure built on human callousness will inevitably collapse in on itself. Note this moment well: Zionism's superstructure is already collapsing like a cheap Jerusalem wedding hall. Only madmen continue dancing on the top floor while the pillars...
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June 18, 2004
Posted on June 18, 2004 03:02 PM under:
Books
Moroccan author, Tahar Ben Jelloun, was named the winner yesterday of the $120,000 International Impac Dublin Literary Award, the world's richest prize for a single work of fiction published in English. Mr. Ben Jelloun won for his fact-based novel, "This Blinding Absence of Light", about a soldier imprisoned in a desert concentration camp after taking part in an abortive coup against King Hassan II of Morocco in 1971. The book was written in French, and Mr. Ben Jelloun will receive three-fourths of the prize money, with the rest going to Linda Coverdale, who translated the novel. Mr. Ben Jelloun, born...
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Posted on June 18, 2004 02:47 PM under:
Music
Madonna has spent years building a reputation with her name, and now she's changing it. The pop diva has adopted the Hebrew name Esther. She says the move is in part due to her religious beliefs as she studies Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah. Even though this is not as mad as Prince dropping his name and choosing a symbol instead of it, it's quite bad. Of course, Madonna as a person has all the right to do whatever she wants to personally, and it's none of anyone's business. I just think it's stupid from a career/marketing point of view....
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The Bush administration's foreign policy in Iraq and elsewhere has been a "disaster," and President Bush should not be re-elected, a group of former diplomats and military leaders say. They called the current administration a “political and moral disaster” and contend Bush's foreign policy has failed at "preserving national security and providing world leadership." They also said that international respect for the United States is now "crumbling under an administration blinded by ideology and a callous indifference to the realities of the world around it."...
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June 17, 2004
Just came across a post on Why You Should Dump Internet Explorer. The main reasons stated are the security problems IE has and it's non-compliancy with web standards. And I totally agree with those reasons. But I would also like to add slow speed and lack of new features as problems I have with IE. Tabbed browsing, fast page loading, popup blocking, skinning, extensions and more. These are all things that are very necessary in a modern browser. IE simply doesn't provide that. IE is great for developers who want to get something working and who want to have extra...
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Posted on June 17, 2004 11:56 AM under:
Tunisia
So we're skipping summer this year in Tunisia, or so it seems. Usually at this time of the year, the heat would be rising exponentially to reach it's climax in August, we'd be sweating buckets, sticky with mediterranean humidity, gasping for air and dying for a good swim. This year, this week, the weather is quite autumn-like; cold strong winds, loads of bucket sized rain drops and our jackets are out of the closets again. In fact, yesterday it rained throughout the day and night. This morning we woke up to find water flooded streets and slow traffic jams because...
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June 16, 2004
The Wall Street Journal have published a list of the top seven items of techno-lust. Here they are with my comments on each one: 7) Cool new do-everything cellphone A few years back, I was against cellphones, now I can't deny a cool feature-packed cellphone is a hot item in my wish list. People change, and I'm only human ;) 6) DVR (Digital Video Recorder) Hmmm, not a must, but it would be rather cool. 5) The iPod Mini Certainly want a digital music player. Not necessarily an iPod though. I actually have a digital cam/mp3 player that my dear...
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June 15, 2004
So Yahoo! has started offering 100MB Email space for it's free email accounts. A nice surprise I got this morning as I logged in to check my Yahoo! account. I stopped using my yahoo account much mostly because of the size limitation. I mainly used it as a spam filter for one of my extremely spammed email addresses and checked it every once in a while. But now that the size is better, I might actually use it more often for certain things. I think we should actually thank Google for this, as it's their GMail service that made free...
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Posted on June 15, 2004 10:34 AM under:
Books
Ok, so I'm a book worm. I bought the book "Le Retour de l'Eléphant" ("The Return of the Elephant") by Abdelaziz Belkhodja on Sunday, and finished reading it yesterday, Monday. As I wrote yesterday in my Reading section on the left, this is a nice futuristic humourous fiction about a time when Carthage is the richest and most powerful city in the world again, immigrants come from the north to the south, Iraq watches over the embargo on the U.S. and the hottest university in the world is the University of Tozeur. I like the humour in it, the idea...
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June 14, 2004
The US Government's Biggest Single Problem ... The biggest single problem the federal government has is its hypocrisy. It talks one way and acts another. It talks of spreading democracy while supporting dictators; it blathers about human rights while violating them; and it claims to promote the rule of law while scoffing at laws it considers inconvenient... Charley Reese [Via Je Blog]...
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June 13, 2004
So, here comes another junk reality tv show. This time it's Next Action Star by NBC. NBC and producer Joel Silver are looking for the Next Action Star! 14 hopefuls are plucked from obscurity, sent to Los Angeles to compete to become Hollywood's next "big thing". They will be trained in everything from acting to stunts by the best in the business. Two winners (1 man, 1 woman) will star in Joel Silver's first network television film, also airing this summer on NBC. This whole reality tv thingie is getting way out of hand. Everything is becoming a reality tv...
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June 12, 2004
Queen Rania of Jordan has been granted the honorary rank of full colonel in the country's armed forces. Her husband King Abdullah also made his Palestinian-born wife head of the Queen Rania Society for the Support of the Military and their Families. In March, Rania launched a media campaign to change women's stereotypes and boost their role in Arab society. [Source: BBC] This is really interesting and I think is meant as part of the campaign to change women's stereotypes and to advance woman's rights even further in Jordan. I think it's great. I've always admired Queen Rania for...
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June 11, 2004
Posted on June 11, 2004 06:52 PM under:
Cinema
Andy Serkis, the man behind the popular Gollum character from the "Lord of the Rings" films, is reuniting with Peter Jackson to become the man behind the monster in Universal Pictures' "King Kong," the director's retelling of the 1933 classic. Like he did for Gollum, Serkis will provide motion capture reference for the character of Kong, who will eventually be realized as a completely computer-generated creature. Serkis also has been cast as Lumpy the cook, a member of the crew of the Venture, the tramp steamer that sails to Skull Island. [More: CNN] Andy Serkis did a great job on...
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Germany's team doctor has advised players not to have sex shortly before Euro 2004 games and drink plenty of water instead. Team doctor Tim Meyer says sex immediately before games should be avoided because of the physical and emotional strain involved. "Drink, drink, drink" is what the players should do, he said. [Source: Reuters] Yeaaaaaahhhhh! The only thing better than sex is a drink of water, it takes you to another level of satisfaction. Whatever! I'd definitely choose sex......
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Posted on June 11, 2004 12:28 PM under:
Music
Ray Charles, the genius soul, blues and gospel singer has died at the age of 73 in Beverly Hills, California. The cause of his death is complications from liver disease. It's a real loss to the music world. Ray Charles awed us all with his great music, endless talent and his strong will. I remember listening to Ray Charles ever since I was a kid, as my dad is a fan of his, and growing up to fall in love with his music too. His songs will remain engraved in every music lover's mind and in the history of world...
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Posted on June 11, 2004 10:15 AM under:
Books
I just finished reading Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell yesterday afternoon, and WOW, that was one hell of a read. It's one of those books that suck you in to them and paint the world and the images all around you, where you and the main character become one and live the story together. I truly loved reading it. Big Brother, Thought Police, NewSpeak, Changing the past and the Ministries of Love, Peace and Plenty ...etc. There's such a great attention to detail in this book, it simply makes you feel, see and live what the writer is talking about....
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I just came across this Life Assessment Quiz called the Clean Sweep Program. This program is a checklist of 100 items which, when completed, give one complete personal freedom. These 100 items are grouped in 4 areas of life with 25 in each group: Physical Environment, Well-being, Money and Relationships. These 4 areas are the cornerstone for a strong and healthy life and the program helps a person to clean up, restore and polish virtually every aspect of his/her life. The program takes between 6 - 24 months to complete. It's very interesting. I got a total of 34, which...
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June 10, 2004
Procter & Gamble, the manufacturer of Pringles chips has come up with an innovative process to place images and text on the surface of Pringles potato chips. So now, an Ad can be passed to you on the chip before you crunch it away. According to the press release, first up will be a promotion involving one of Hasbro's popular board games, "Trivial Pursuit Junior." Questions from that brand will be featured on the chips, along with the answers. Hmmm... Aren't they taking advertising a bit too far here?! I mean, advertising on food? I think that's a bit too...
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Posted on June 10, 2004 10:49 AM under:
Link Dump
Tune Into Tunisia: Nice article about Tunisia in NY Post. The 50 coolest song parts: Really cool Bush/Zombie Reagan 2004: The new Republican presidential ticket Wife's phone bills spell divorce: lol... Timeline of early Blogs...
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June 09, 2004
President Bush, as commander-in-chief, is not restricted by U.S. and international laws barring torture, Bush administration lawyers stated in a March 2003 memorandum. The 56-page memo to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited the president's "complete authority over the conduct of war," overriding international treaties such as a global treaty banning torture, the Geneva Conventions and a U.S. federal law against torture. "In order to respect the president's inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign ... (the prohibition against torture) must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority," stated the memo, obtained by Reuters...
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Posted on June 9, 2004 12:04 PM under:
Books
It is difficult for Israelis and Palestinians to find common ground - so difficult, in fact, that two prominent writers have retreated from the real world into the pages of a book to achieve it. The book, Gaza Blues, is a collaboration between Samir el-Youssef, a Palestinian, and Israel's Etgar Keret. El-Youssef came up with the idea just over two years ago, during some of the worst violence of the current Palestinian intifada. He called Keret, who said he liked the idea immediately. "I wanted to do something, but 'something' is usually to sign a petition that you have...
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Plans have been announced in the Irish Republic to translate the Koran. The ambitious project aims to bring Ireland's Gaelic-speakers and Muslim communities closer together. The Islamic community is the fastest growing religious minority in Ireland, which is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. It is estimated around 18,000 Muslims live there, out of a total population of nearly four million. [Source: BBC] [Via Je Blog]...
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June 04, 2004
Bearing in mind that the U.S. Army currently has troops stationed in 120 countries, is Abu Ghraib really the most suitable assignment for this American soldier? [Via Lawrence of Cyberia, Je Blog]...
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"Toxic dust" found on computer processors and monitors contains chemicals linked to reproductive and neurological disorders, according to a new study by several environmental groups. The survey, released Thursday by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Computer TakeBack Campaign and Clean Production Action, is among the first to identify brominated flame retardants on the surfaces of common devices in homes and offices. [More: CNN] Damn! Just when you thought your computer was your one and only true and safe friend, this came along....
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June 02, 2004
In more bad news on the torture front, USA Today reports that 15 of the 37 prisoners who died in custody in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2002 were shot, strangled or beaten by U.S. soldiers. [More: AlterNet] [Via: Je Blog] Ever heard of human rights? Naaah. Didn't think so......
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Just found this Arabic shoot 'em up game called "Under Siege". In this game, the player takes the role of a Palestinian resistant fighting the oppressing Israeli army. The game was created by a company called Afkar Media, a Syrian company I think, who also previously released a game called "Under Ash". I haven't tried the game, but the screenshots I saw on the site make it seem pretty good. The graphics and 3D stuff look rather well done too. It's good to see Arab companies are starting to venture into the gaming market. Other than this, I know...
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Posted on June 2, 2004 09:33 AM under:
Cinema
After months of waiting, I finally got to see Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" last night. Kicking back and relaxing on our beautiful new sofas, I really enjoyed this film. It's really simple and the story is a sweet and simple one too. Two people's lives cross in Tokyo, they relate, and they share a nice week together and then they move on. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson did a nice job on this movie. This is the second Sofia Coppola movie, and after seeing both, I truly think she's going to have a good future in writing and directing...
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