June 30, 2006
A couple of days ago, I was watching "A History of Violence" featuring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and Maria Bello, and it got me thinking about crime and redemption, which actually also reminds me of the movie "Redemption" featuring Jamie Foxx, which is based on the true story of Stan "Tookie" Williams. I'm actually a bit torn between my thoughts on this, and haven't reached a satisfactory conclusion. I mean, if a person commits a crime or even leads a life full of it, but then realizes how wrong he was and tries to move on and build a new...
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June 29, 2006
Posted on June 29, 2006 09:18 PM under:
Link Dump
Free Royalty Free Stock Photography Download 400+ quality royalty free stock photos for free. (tags: royalty free photos stock photography photo) World's Fastest Supercomputers The list of the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world nowadays. (tags: supercomputers list top fast fastest) Google Checkout Google's new online payment system, previously rumoured to be called GBuy. (tags: Google shopping checkout ecommerce money shop) Google enabled contact lenses Wired Mag's "Artifacts from the future" unearthed this little optical enhancement. Funny and cool. (tags: future google contact lenses)...
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Three years ago, on a day just like today, unbearable heat wave included, I wrote my first entry in the blog that was to become Subzero Blue. Before that, I had played around with and tested several blog platforms, posting a few random entries, but not knowing what to make out of the whole blogging thingie and what particular subject I wanted to blog about. It wasn't until June 29th 2003 that I committed to a blog and said that I would start writing on it and just go with the flow of what I feel like writing about at...
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June 28, 2006
Posted on June 28, 2006 09:20 PM under:
Link Dump
How to Make Real life stuff Anime style Adobe Photoshop tutorial on how to take a photo of something real and retouch it into an anime style image. (tags: photoshop photo retouch anime tutorial cool) Web 2.0 Design Tutorials A bunch of cool resources and tutoirlals on Web 2.0 design. (tags: web2.0 design tutorial resources tutorials) Open-Source Java Soon Sun says is it only "months" away from releasing its trademark Java programming language under an open-source license. (tags: sun java opensource programming language) The first version of Photoshop Screenshots of the 1.0 version of Adobe's Photoshop released in 1990....
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June 27, 2006
Posted on June 27, 2006 10:30 AM under:
Tunisia
Our friend Mochekes has launched a proposition to have the next Tunisian blogger meetup this coming Sunday, July 2nd. He suggests to have it at 7PM in the Metallica Café in El Nasr. For any ideas or suggestions, head over to Mochekes' blog and leave a comment. Absolutely everyone is welcome, of course. Spread the word....
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June 26, 2006
Posted on June 26, 2006 01:42 PM under:
Cinema
I finally got to watch "V for Vendetta" this weekend, and I have to say I just loved it. I heard the following quote in the trailer that I saw a few months ago, and ever since then I've been dying to see the movie. "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." The movie is by the Wachowski brothers, the duo behind the Matrix, was directed by James McTeigue and features Hugo Weaving (as V, doing a great job "talking", reminding us of Agent Smith) and Natalie Portman. The movie is based...
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June 23, 2006
Posted on June 23, 2006 09:18 PM under:
Link Dump
55 Ways to Have Fun With Google A free ebook featuring Google-related games, cartoons, oddities, tips, stories and more fun stuff. (tags: google ebook pdf free fun) Orchestrate - Manage Yourself Another ajax style todo list manager. I like their clean and practical ajax interface. (tags: todo productivity organization ajax lists lifehacks) The 50 Worst Video Game Names Of All Time A list of the worst video game names ever. Some very stupid names in there, I agree. (tags: games funny humor videogames list humour) eBook Lobby A collection of free ebooks covering a number of different categories. (tags:...
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Have you ever been in a position where you think about something, and in your head it sounds really funny and cool, but then you say it and it comes out all wrong and makes you sound like a stuck up arrogant asshole? Well that happened to me at work yesterday! And it felt like shit! To make things worse, one of my co-workers kiddingly jumped on it and kept amplifying it, only making it even shittier, and making me feel guilty as hell, even though I never meant anything bad from it. I hate situations like that, and well...
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June 22, 2006
Posted on June 22, 2006 10:52 AM under:
Cinema
Last night, I watched the movie adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, directed by Michael Radford, featuring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. I read "The Merchant Of Venice" a long time ago, back when I was in school, I think, and I remember really liking it. And as the guy I rent movies from is a big fan of Jeremy Irons and Al Pacino, he's been pushing me to see this movie adaptation of it ever since he knew me. I heard the movie didn't do that well, but eventually I gave in and rented it....
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June 21, 2006
Posted on June 21, 2006 09:17 PM under:
Link Dump
Psychological Self-Help A really good book about psychological self-help by Clayton E. Tucker-Ladd. (tags: psychology health lifehacks book selfhelp self-help) Photo Retouching Using Airbrush How to retouch photos using Adobe Photoshop's airbrush tool. Very cool. (tags: photoshop tutorial photography howto airbrush retouch photo) Tutorials in Photo Retouch More cool photo retouch tutorials, 438 to be precise. (tags: photoshop photography tutorials retouch photos) Sudoku Combat Play against people, show the world how good you are... (tags: sudoku games online multiplayer combat game fun)...
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Unbelievable, but true... Poor husbands in India have set up rent-a-wife schemes, leasing their partners for up to £100 a month to richer men as the shortage of brides has reached crisis proportions. The increasing scarcity of young women graphically shows the impact of the outlawed but widespread practice of aborting female foetuses because families want boys, not girls. Atta Prajapati, a farm worker who lives in Gujarat state, leases out his wife Laxmi to a wealthy landowner for £100 a month - around ten times his salary. Laxmi is expected to live with the man, look after him and...
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First, let's start with the definition... pro·cras·ti·nate v., -nat·ed, -nat·ing, -nates. v.intr. To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness. v.tr. To postpone or delay needlessly. Now, If there was a Procrastination World Championship, I think I'd have some of the biggest chances of winning it; if I don't keep putting back my registration for it beyond the final date that is. It's one of the things I don't like about myself, and that I've always wanted to change, but the thing is that I've also been putting back the change, which confirms how bad a...
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Posted on June 21, 2006 10:43 AM under:
Books
In the halftime of the England-Sweden match last night, I finished reading "How To Be Good" by Nick Hornby. I'm quite a fan of Nick Hornby and his style of writing. I also really like the movie adaptations of his books. Thanks to my friend Sleepless Jojo for lending me this book. I'm going to quote some of the Amazon review on this one because it basically says all I have to say about the book's story. How to Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third...
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June 20, 2006
Posted on June 20, 2006 09:19 PM under:
Link Dump
10 tips on writing reusable code A list of tips that should help you increase code reuse in your projects. (tags: programming development tips coding productivity) 10 Things a new Linux user needs to unlearn This is aimed at people who come from a Windows environment and have gotten used to certain things they won't have to be bothered about on Linux. (tags: linux interesting funny windows) Mozilla Firefox Cheat Sheet A bunch of useful keyboard shortcuts for Firefox. (tags: firefox cheatsheet reference tips browser useful tricks keyboard shortcuts) 2008 China Olympics Stadium Designs The designs submitted to the...
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Abertay University in Dundee, England, is offering the country's first degree in computer hacking. Classes in the major will teach students how to find out passwords and log-in information, and how to shut down computer systems; the aim is to produce hackers that could work for the government against computer criminals. However, even teachers in the discipline say teaching criminal activities could produce more criminals. Well, personally, I think it's a good idea, but well they should make the name of the degree friendlier by maybe calling it "Computer Security" or something like that. As for the idea that maybe...
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June 19, 2006
Posted on June 19, 2006 09:18 PM under:
Link Dump
Top Ten Super Cars Top ten super cars most of us can't even afford in their dreams, but would love to take for a spin. (tags: super cars cool expensive fast) Very Difficult Analytical Puzzles A bunch of difficult, yet really cool, analytical puzzles. Must check out. (tags: puzzles logic games puzzle fun cool science) 50 ways to become a better designer Advice from leading designers on every stage of the creative process to make the most of your talent. (tags: design tips creativity web art howto webdesign) 10 Ways to Optimize Your Normal Days 10 changes you can...
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Posted on June 19, 2006 03:12 PM under:
Tunisia
The weather is disgusting... I can't find a better suited word to describe the weather today. The heat is unbearable... It almost feels like hell's doors are wide open outside... It's near impossible to breathe; suffocating is more like what we're doing... Humidity is taking over, making you feel all yucky and sticky even if you still aren't... And what's worse is that this is just the beginning... Days like this aren't meant to be work days. I should be floating on the ice cold waters of the Mediterranean sea, on one of Bizerte's beautiful beaches, relaxing and enjoying the...
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June 18, 2006
I just finished playing Resident Evil 4 on PlayStation 2. I played Resident Evil 2 on the pc some years ago, and I remember really liking it too, so when a friend from work recommended this sequel me, I got it right away, and it turned out as good as he said it was. I really enjoyed playing it. Leon S. Kennedy, the character from Resident Evil 2, returns in this sequel, and he has become a Federal agent. When the President's daughter is kidnapped, Leon tracks her to a remote, hidden fortress in Europe - where he'll relive the...
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Ok, so I'm probably the last person on Earth to watch the first season of hit TV show Lost, but well it's not like anyone aired it and I chose not to watch, plus I'm not into watching crappy quality pirated french versions of it, so I had to wait for it to come out on DVD and for one of the stores I rent from to get it. Anyway, I can see what the whole fuss is about. It's very well done and I truly enjoyed watching every episode of it. It sucks you in from the very beginning,...
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June 16, 2006
People have different ways of dealing with the stress in their lives: - Some suck it all in and let it eat away at them from the inside. - Some bang on tables or whatever surfaces they find near to them. - Some break things they find lying around them, glass objects are a favourite. - Some shout their lungs out, obscenities galore. - Some bang their heads on a wall. - Some start a fight with the first person that crosses their path. - Some rush for the fridge and have all they can eat. - Some unleash it...
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June 14, 2006
Google have finally rolled out an Arabic version of Google News. I checked the list of languages the service is available in this morning, as I always do when reading the news there, and found it was added. The Arabic version pulls articles from 150 Arabic news sources, which is relatively very good, even though it's a humble number compared to the 4500 sources for the English version. I think it's great to see Google's evident push into Arabic recently with it launching an Arabic version of Gmail, English-Arabic / Arabic-English translation and now Google News. I read a lot...
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June 12, 2006
Posted on June 12, 2006 09:18 PM under:
Link Dump
I want a Firefox Extension to ... A list of 200+ extremely useful firefox extensions that save time and effort. Cool stuff. (tags: firefox extensions extension tools list browser) Top 10 Strangest Spy Gadgets A list of the Top 10 Strangest (or coolest) Spy Gadgets. I especially like "The Pen Scanner", the "Motion Detector Telephone" is a good idea too. (tags: gadgets technology gadget tech list spy) 101 Stairways to Heaven 101 version of Led Zeppelin's classis "Stairways to Heaven". Can't be anything but cool. (tags: music mp3 stairway heaven audio cover led zeppelin) 15 Exercises for Learning a...
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Good news for pizza lovers like me... Italian researchers say eating pizza could protect against cancer. They claim eating pizza regularly reduced the risk of developing oesophageal cancer by 59%. The risk of developing colon cancer also fell by 26% and mouth cancer by 34%, they claimed. The secret could be lycopene, an antioxidant chemical in tomatoes, which is thought to offer some protection against cancer, and which gives the fruit its traditional red colour. [Source: BBC News] On the other hand Pizza can be high in saturated fat, salt and calories which would most probably result in an "outstanding"...
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June 11, 2006
What a nice high tech name... They sell wood and its "derivatives"?! With a name like this, I wonder what those are......
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June 08, 2006
The news everywhere today is about the killing of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi through a joint US-Jordanian operation last night. Good riddance, of course. This guy was responsible for many innocent deaths in Iraq and elsewhere, and it's only fair and good to the world for him to go like this. This doesn't mean the terrorism and attacks will come to an end anytime soon, but well, it's one mad leader less to worry about. But still, I don't know why all this sometimes feels like one big soap opera, I'm sure the conspiracy theorists will agree. It's as if...
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June 07, 2006
Please forward this to your girlfriends, wifes, etc. ;-) 1. From 9 June to 9 July 2006, you should read the sports section of the newspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World Cup, and that way you will be able to join in the conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be looked at in a bad way, or you will be totally ignored. DO NOT complain about not receiving any attention. 2. During the World Cup, the television is mine, at all times, without any exceptions. If you even...
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I'm not usually into forwards, but well sometimes you find something cool here or there in one of them. This is a funny list from a forward I got from my friend Orange today (Thanks Orange), and I thought I would share. 9 Things I Hate About Everyone 1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time.... I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is? 2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room...
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June 06, 2006
"Al-Quraysh" is a strategy game developed by Damascus based Afkar Media, that tells the story of the first 100 years of Islam's history from the viewpoint of four different nations - Bedouins, Arabs, Persians, and Romans. One can choose to command any of the armies of the four nations or lead the army of the main character, Khaled Ibn Waleed, a Muslim warrior who defeated the Roman and Persian empires and never lost a battle. Or one can play the role of the Bedouin sheikh, who must earn the respect of his tribe. The player has the task of building...
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In what can only be described as another act of war against Microsoft, Google is now beta testing a new online application called Google Spreadsheets. And yes you guessed right, it'll be going head to head against Microsoft's Excel. Google Spreadsheets will be able to do all the basic stuff you got used to doing with Excel in a simpler way through a familiar desktop-like interface. Import and export of your spreadsheets is possible. And with your spreadsheets also being saved online, you can access and work on them from anywhere you wish. Google Spreadsheets also adds a layer of...
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June 05, 2006
There's been a lot of buzz these past days in the Arab blogosphere about the World Cup matches and the exclusive rights agreement that ART has with FIFA to air the World Cup in the Middle East. This deal means that the only way for Arabs to get to watch the World Cup is to subscribe to ART, something which isn't within the reach of everyone, or if they have a dish installed, hope that some satellite channel will be airing the matches, which is not such a sure bet. Local, terrestrial, TV stations in Arab countries will only get...
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While doing my daily round of blogs today, I came across a link to Paulo Coelho's blog "Walking The Path" on M.S. Hjiouij's blog. I've been a fan of Paulo Coelho ever since I read his book The Alchemist, which is a really great book, that came at just the right time in my life. During the months of March, April, May and June, Paulo Coelho is traveling to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in 1986. The purpose of this blog is to enable distant readers to be with Paulo Coelho walking the path....
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June 04, 2006
Journalist: "Monsieur Ben M'Hidi, don't you think it's a bit cowardly to use women's baskets and handbags to carry explosive devices that kill so many innocent people?" Ben M'Hidi: "And doesn't it seem to you even more cowardly to drop napalm bombs on defenseless villages, so that there are a thousand times more innocent victims? Of course, if we had your airplanes it would be a lot easier for us. Give us your bombers, and you can have our baskets." -- Dialogue from The Battle of Algiers, dir. Gillo Pontecorvo (1965). [Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]...
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June 01, 2006
Posted on June 1, 2006 05:16 PM under:
Music
So, the news is that American music diva Mariah Carey will be coming to Tunisia this summer to perform at two concerts. The concerts will be held on July 22nd and 24th at the Menzah Stadium in Tunis. It's not very often that someone as famous as Mariah Carey comes to Tunisia for a concert. We've only had Michael Jackson once, Sting once and well I don't remember who else, if any. Still I'm not too sure I'll be going. I used to like some of Mariah's music in the early 90's, around the period of her hit album 'Music...
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