October 30, 2005
Oracle will soon be announcing the beta release of Oracle 10g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE), which will be generally available by the end of the year. It is targeted at students, small organizations and software vendors that could embed the Oracle database with an application. The free edition will be limited in usage though. It can only run servers with one processor, with 4GB of disk memory and 1GB of memory. The new low-end edition is aimed squarely at free and open-source alternatives to Oracle's namesake database. It feels good to see giant arrogant software makers crumble a bit...
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October 29, 2005
Today, I went to the dentist's for another one of my seemingly endless appointments for dental work. Sometimes I feel like I have some sort of membership card. Anyway, as I entered the waiting room, I found this cute little 9 year old kid who was flipping through a French magazine, mainly focusing on the many pictures, flying by some and looking closer at some others. I said hi and sat next to him and pulled a magazine from the stack too and started flipping through it myself. The boy came across this perfume ad with a guy holding up...
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October 27, 2005
All the talk seems to be about this now... Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today lambasted Israel and Zionism and quoted a remark from Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, that Israel "must be wiped out from the map of the world." The president then said: "And God willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism," according to a quote published by Iran's state news outlet, the Islamic Republic News Agency. The remarks by Ahmadinejad coincided with a month-long protest against Israel called "World Without Zionism" and with...
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10. Think Different (Apple) 9. We bring good things to life (General Electric) 8. We try harder (Avis) 7. Breakfast of champions (Wheaties) 6. Where’s the beef? (Wendy’s) 5. Diamonds are forever (DeBeers) 4. Melt in your mouth, not in your hand (M&M candies) 3. Always Coca-Cola (Coca-Cola) 2. Tastes great, less filling (Miller Lite) 1. Just do it (Nike) [Source: AskMen] [Via: 2:48AM]...
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October 26, 2005
We're natural born searchers... We were created to search... We search for many different things throughout our lives... We search to understand... We search for our personality... We search for the meaning... We search for our identity... We search for our passion... We search for our future... We search for happiness... We search for our purpose... We search for our message... We search for the reason... We search for the truth... We search for what's behind the truth... We search for what will come next... We search for the beginning... We search for the end... We search for what will...
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The BBC World Service has announced it is to set up a new Arabic television channel, in what it describes as its "biggest transformation in 70 years." The new station is expected to be a rival to the Qatar-based al-Jazeera, which is itself launching an English-language service next year. The World Service says its new Arabic language television service is "part of a wide-ranging package of proposals aimed at maintaining and enhancing BBC World Service's pre-eminent position and impact in an emerging multimedia age." The Arabic channel, due to launch in 2007, forms part of a £30 million (U.S.$53 million)...
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October 25, 2005
Pop superstar Michael Jackson has fallen in love with Bahrain after spending the summer in the Middle Eastern nation and now plans to make it his permanent home. The King of Pop flew to Bahrain shortly after being acquitted of child molestation in a Santa Maria, California court and spent time there as a guest of the crown prince Sheik Salman Ibn Hamed Khalifa. And, after months of speculation suggesting Jackson is planning to sell his Neverland home in California, and make Bahrain his official headquarters, attorney Thomas Mesereau confirms his client is making a life-changing move. He says, "He's...
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Teshkeel Media Group, KSC announced a comprehensive agreement with Marvel Entertainment, Inc., a leading global character-based entertainment and licensing company, to bring Arabic-language Marvel comics, trade paperbacks and magazines to the Middle East and North Africa region. Headquartered in Kuwait, Teshkeel’s product offering will include Arabic language magazines, comic books and trade paperbacks featuring some of Marvel’s most well-known characters including SPIDER-MAN, the X-MEN, the FANTASTIC FOUR, THE INCREDIBLE HULK and THE AVENGERS. Publication of Marvel’s most well-known and successful titles will start early next year. I wonder how these will turn out. I'm not so sure how cool Spiderman...
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October 24, 2005
So guess what?! It seems my blog, subzeroblue.com, is worth $72,825.66 That amount was calculated according to Tristan Louis's research into the AOL-Weblogs Inc deal and the value of each link to Weblogs Inc, using the same link to dollar ratio. That's not too bad. The question is: Would I sell "Subzero Blue" if I were offered that price? Hmmm... I don't know really, I mean I could use that kind of money, but still my blog is very dear to me and the thought that I'll be selling every single thought and word I've thought of or written for...
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October 23, 2005
Dr. Wail Abu Hendi; a psychologist with interests in dieting, obesity, and slimness, as well as eating disorders; believes that modifying eating behavior is more effective to accomplish weight loss than traditional dieting methods. Abu Hendi developed a therapeutic behavioral program in accordance with the Sunnah (life and teachings) of the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him). Among the ideas he puts forward: - Eating can be looked upon as not only something pleasurable, but also as an act of worship. - Dedicating approximately 30 minutes to each meal instead of just wolfing it down. - Restricting...
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Now, that's a really cool t-shirt, lol... [Via: 2:48AM]...
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October 22, 2005
1- walk really fast when you are going anywhere as to appear something important is going to happen 2- carry a notebook with you at all times. seems like you are suppose to be somewhere taking notes. if at your desk keep it open with a pen on it 3- keep your headset on if you are in your cubicle 4- actually do work but that defeats the purpose. okay more later. any suggestions? 5- shuffle papers 6- look pissed off 7- put up a do not disturb sign when you are browsing the web 8- continually click on a...
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Yesterday, I downloaded the developer preview of Flock, the newest browser to hit the internet. Many people must be thinking this is another browser too much, but well if they bring us something new and cool, why not? The main point behind Flock is the attempt to integrate as many innovations and social apps into one place, the browser. From del.icio.us bookmarking and tagging, to Flickr integration, to blogging, to feed aggregation, ...etc. Flock is based on the open source Mozilla code base that was used for Firefox too, but it's a bit faster than Firefox and has a cooler...
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October 21, 2005
Posted on October 21, 2005 01:37 PM under:
Music
Whether long range weapon or suicide bomber Wicked mind is a weapon of mass destruction Whether you're soar away sun or BBC 1 Misinformation is a weapon of mass destruction You could a Caucasian or a poor Asian Racism is a weapon of mass destruction Whether inflation or globalization Fear is a weapon of mass destruction Whether Halliburton or Enron or anyone Greed is a weapon of mass destruction We need to find courage, overcome Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction Song: Mass Destruction Band: Faithless Another great song by Faithless; Another extremely catchy tune and really interesting lyrics....
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October 18, 2005
Posted on October 18, 2005 05:52 PM under:
Cinema
Sylvester Stallone is signing on to reprise his role as boxer Rocky Balboa in the sixth installment of the long-running film series, which he wrote and will direct. The film, titled "Rocky Balboa," will be co-produced and co-financed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios and will be distributed by Columbia Pictures. In the new installment, Rocky, lonely and retired in Philadelphia, comes out of retirement, intending to fight a few low-profile local fights. He's approached to fight a match with reigning heavyweight champ Mason "The Line" Dixon, and soon his comeback ignites a media firestorm. Some people just don't...
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October 17, 2005
Posted on October 17, 2005 10:17 AM under:
Cinema
Sandy-haired English actor Daniel Craig was unveiled Friday as the star of the next Bond film, "Casino Royale," due in theaters in November 2006. Producer Michael G. Wilson said 200 actors had been considered, but Craig was the only one who had been offered the role. Speculation about the new Bond included Clive Owen, Ioan Gruffudd, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Gerard Butler, Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger and Eric Bana. I've only seen Daniel Craig in "The Road To Perdition" and "The Jacket", and he was good. But I don't know why I don't feel he fits...
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October 16, 2005
Posted on October 16, 2005 03:47 PM under:
Tunisia
Last night we had the Ramadan Tunisian blogger meetup, which is our 7th. It started off just before the break of fast in a small and nice restaurant in downtown Tunis, called "El Mida". 5 people turned up for the dinner, which was pretty good, especially the Brik, a delicious Tunisian specialty. After dinner, we moved on to a close by café called "Chichkhan", which is really nicely decorated in an Arabesque style. There we had some coffee and some tea while we waited for the people who couldn't make it to the dinner to arrive. We later moved...
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October 14, 2005
Posted on October 14, 2005 10:46 PM under:
Tunisia
A lot of ideas were thrown around for the Ramadan Tunisian blogger meetup, and what started out as a nice little meetup over a Ramadan dinner turned into a lot more. So, finally, the proposed plan for tomorrow is as follows: We meet a bit before the break of fast for a Ramadan dinner at "Al Mida" restaurant in downtown Tunis, in the Lafayette area, Palestine Road that was proposed by Karim, who knows the area like the back of his hand. [Address: 12 Palestine Road, Lafayette] After that , we'll go have something to drink in a nearby café...
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ScreamBody is the first of the series of Wearable Body Organs. ScreamBody is a portable space for screaming. When a user needs to scream but is in anynumber of situations where it is just not permitted, ScreamBody silences the user’s screams so they may feel free to vocalize without fear of environmental retaliation, and at the same time records the scream for later release where, when, and how the user chooses. Now that's cool. It reminds me of those balls they used to make that would make this glass-breaking sound when you thrown them on the ground, as a...
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October 13, 2005
First Al-Qaeda started recruiting online... Al Qaeda has put job advertisements on the Internet asking for supporters to help put together its Web statements and video montages, London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported. The "vacant positions" for video production and editing statements, footage and international media coverage about militants in Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya and other conflict zones where militants are active. And now it's British MI6's turn... Britain's foreign spy service MI6 has turned to the Internet in an attempt to recruit real-life James Bonds. Applicants are promised foreign travel and must be resourceful and flexible, thrive on a challenge...
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October 12, 2005
Posted on October 12, 2005 10:08 AM under:
Music
Sami Yusuf has released his second album under the name "My Ummah". The album contains 14 songs in English, Arabic and Turkish. The new album deals with – amongst other things - issues such as unity, spirituality, sisters’ struggle to wear the scarf, terrorism, human brotherhood, faith, and songs about Allah and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). You can check out audio samples of the songs and their lyrics on Sami's official website. You can buy the album online at the Awakening Store. About the album Sami says: Islamic Art, whether in the form of calligraphy, tiles, or music is all...
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Ok, I didn't mean to have 2 consecutive posts about Bush, but this joke was too good to let go :P Bush’s advisor steps up beside him in the oval office: “Mr. president, we’ve just had word from Iraq, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq today” The president’s jaw drops, he puts his head in his hands and silence fills the room. “My god! How many is three brazillion?” Good one, looool... [Via: Sugar Cubes]...
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October 11, 2005
The truth we all know already... [Via: Ammar]...
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I don't think this is a true Microsoft ad, but well it's quite funny... [Via: Fahd]...
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October 10, 2005
“Find purpose, the means will follow.” – Mahatma Gandhi I couldn't agree more. Our search for our purpose in this world is one of the most important defining moments in our lives. Once we find that purpose, all means will follow, everything will start falling into place. The more we believe in it, and the more we want it, the more we will work to make those means a reality to fulfill our purpose....
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Yahoo today launched Yahoo! Podcasts, a new podcast search service, that will enable people to easily search podcasts through keywords, categories or user-generated topic tags. The podcast site includes a central directory of shows indexed by Yahoo, community tools for ranking and recommending specific clips, and compatibility with many different types of multimedia software and wireless devices. Searchers can listen to or subscribe to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for individual shows or episodes of programming or entire series. Yahoo also plans to eventually offer tools that will enable people to create their own podcasts. This is another big step...
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Designer Charles Trevelyan introduced some new designs at 100% London and writes; "My main piece was the Shelflife shelving system, a large shelving unit or room divider that features a chair and table that can be pulled out from within the shelves. I also showed a lamp, Titanic, designed to appear to be sinking beneath the surface of the table." I personally love both of these designs, especially the shelflife shelving system. That would make a really cool bookcase. Very creative. [Via: Boing Boing, MoCo Loco]...
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October 09, 2005
Posted on October 9, 2005 03:48 PM under:
Tunisia
For the third consecutive time, and fourth time in the history of Tunisian football (Soccer for you Americans), Tunisia has qualified for the World Cup finals to be held next year in Germany. The decisive game was played last night in Tunisia, in the Rades stadium. Coming into the game Tunisia topped Group E with 20 points, and needed just a draw to book their place, while Morocco - a point behind - needed victory to win the group and qualify. The game was a very tight one and both sides were doing their best to qualify. The match ended...
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October 08, 2005
An earthquake of 7.6 magnitude on the Richter scale, epicentered in Kashmir, hit northern India and Pakistan, around 8:50 AM local time. The confirmed death toll stands at 1,337. Effects of the quake, the most intense in the region in a century, were felt hundreds of miles away. Remote towns and major cities, such as Pakistan's capital of Islamabad, India's capital of New Delhi and the Pakistani city of Lahore, were shaken. The same community who blogged the tsunami are now blogging the earthquake. Follow their blog at: http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/. Our hearts and minds are with the people of Pakistan, India...
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Google have gone on and rolled out another cool web application by the name of Google Reader. Google Reader is a web-based feed reader. It has a really nice interface that reminds a lot of the Gmail interface, but even better and cooler, thanks to all the Ajax work under the hood. Like Gmail, it also has labels that can be used to group your different feeds. I uploaded my opml export file and even though it took a long time to import my subscriptions, it did using the same group organization I have, automatically creating labels for each group...
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October 07, 2005
Posted on October 7, 2005 11:47 AM under:
Tunisia
It's been a while since we had a Tunisian blogger meetup, so I think it's about time we organize one soon. As it's Ramadan, I'm thinking we could all meet and have dinner together somewhere nice. So, what do you guys think? And when do you think we should have it? And do you have any suggestions for good restaurants that serve a delicious meal at accessible prices? Please leave a comment or email me with your suggestions and ideas....
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Continuing it's startup shopping spree, Yahoo has gone on and acquired Upcoming.org, the online event planning site that we've been using to organize the Tunisian blogger meetups lately. Los Angeles-based Upcoming acts as a social calendar that depends on its users to post free listings about a wide range of upcoming events, from local rock concerts to picnics in the park. The site, founded by Andy Baio, provides tools that enable users to share observations about the events and identify common areas of interests. Yahoo says that it plans to keep Upcoming's current Web site separate, but eventually will incorporate...
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The U.N. nuclear watchdog and its head, Mohamed El Baradei, won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their efforts to limit the spread of atomic weapons. The Norwegian Nobel Committee picked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and El Baradei, an Egyptian, from a record field of 199 candidates. It praised El Baradei as an "unafraid advocate" of measures to strengthen non-proliferation efforts. The two had been among favorites for the award on the 60th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Nobel Committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes...
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October 05, 2005
Today on our way back from a work meeting, a friend told me about this new service in Tunisia called "Le DVD Mobile" (The Mobile DVD). "Le DVD Mobile" is a sort of Tunisian Netflix. It's a service that delivers rented DVDs to your doorstep. The process is as follows: You subscribe online to one of their plans, and then order DVDs, from their catalog, either online, by SMS or by phone. The DVDs are then delivered to your doorstep the following day, and then collected again from your doorstep according to the date you specify when you ordered them....
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October 04, 2005
Programmer to Team Leader: "We can't do this proposed project. **CANNOT**. It will involve a major design change and no one in our team knows the design of this legacy system. And above that, nobody in our company knows the language in which this application has been written. So even if somebody wants to work on it, they can't. If you ask my personal opinion, the company should never take these type of projects." Team Leader to Project Manager: "This project will involve a design change. Currently, we don't have any staff with experience in this type of work. Also,...
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Wi-Fi is barely starting in Tunisia, apart from three airports and a very few hotels here and there, it's unlikely you'll come across any wireless hotspots. This post is more about some of my ideas and thoughts on how WiFi internet can get off the ground and become a reality in Tunisia. Maybe it's a bit too early, as even broadband connections are still not that wide-spread yet between home users, but we're on the way there, and we can allow ourselves to look a bit to the future. As with anything like this, government entities should be and are...
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Google is making a bid to build a San Francisco-wide free wifi network, according to company officials. The company filed documents in response to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s request for information for the city wide network. According to Google officials, San Francisco residents will enjoy a 300 kilobits per second, always on connection anywhere in the city. In August, Newsom's office sent out a request for a proposal and comments to the private sector for building a Wi-Fi network that would give "every corner" of San Francisco wireless access to the Internet, Newsom said. The process was finalized Friday,...
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Finally got the bit about me in the Dutch Computer Idee blogger article scanned, thanks to Eman... So here it is: Anyone got any idea what it says? lol......
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October 03, 2005
So the holy month of Ramadan is on the doorstep, starting tomorrow or the day after, depending on whether they see the crescent today or not. Now, just this once, I want to get this whole crescent thing off my chest because it's bugging the hell out of me! Every year, religious insititutions in all Muslim countries go out and start looking out for the crescent that marks the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. But of course, they won't all be able to see the crescent from all over the world on the same day, and we end...
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The guys from 37signals have gone on and released another nice light web application called "Whiteboard". Writeboard is an online collaborative writing application, through which you can write alone or with a team of writers, keeping different versions of the document along the way, comparing versions, sharing it, emailing it and exporting it as text. It's simple, no bells and whistles, just a place to write your text unformatted and work on it until you're happy with it. This new app follows the same path as their previous ones Basecamp, Backpack and Ta-da List, in a sense that it makes...
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Flamboyant Japanese internet tycoon turned politician Takafumi Horie has said he will bring Arab news broadcaster Aljazeera to Japan, hoping to provide a greater variety of views to the public. The 32-year-old entrepreneur on Monday said his firm, Livedoor, which offers a portal site much like Yahoo! along with other internet services, has signed a deal with Qatar-based Aljazeera to distribute its news online in Japanese. Horie, an unsuccessful candidate in last month's parliamentary election, wrote on his blog that he was trying to diversify Livedoor's news content. I think it's good that Al-Jazeera's news will be reaching more people...
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October 02, 2005
Posted on October 2, 2005 03:18 PM under:
Tunisia
TunisCity, the biggest mall in Tunisia, opened it's doors on September 29th. I thought it would be better to avoid the first days of it's opening because it would be too crowded, but our curiosity got the best of us yesterday and we had to go check it out. TunisCity is on the outskirts of Tunis, located at the beginning of the Bizerte highway, which would make you think it'd be harder for people to get there, but that was not the case, the parking was crowded and there was a long line of cars waiting to get in...
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October 01, 2005
The UN atomic watchdog has unanimously called for a nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East but rejected an Arab call to denounce Israel as a nuclear threat. The IAEA conference rejected discussion of "Israeli nuclear capabilities and threat," as proposed in a resolution by Oman, despite a strong push for this by 15 Arab states plus Palestine. I think this is total hypocrisy! The IAEA, the US and Europe go on and on and on about Iran and how it could be trying to build nuclear weapons even though they've been assured millions of times they're not, yet Israel...
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While going through the daily news, I came across this article on the english website of Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth about Turkish and Tunisian ties with Israel. The article talks about an interview the prime ministers from both countries had with the London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, which reported on the visit of both prime ministers to Abu Dhabi, where they spoke about relations with Israel. Both prime ministers say that their countries' ties with Israel serve the Palestinian cause and are aimed at finding a solution to the conflict. The article goes on to say that Tunisian prime minister,...
