Month: February 2004

Dumbest tech moments in 2003

Here are some of the dumbest tech moments in 2003 as compiled from the Business 2 dumbest moments in business list.

  • The PC in the WC.
    On April 30, Microsoft U.K. issues a press release touting a new product called the iLoo, an Internet-enabled toilet equipped with a Wi-Fi broadband connection, a plasma flat screen, a waterproof keyboard, and sponsored toilet paper festooned with Web addresses.

     
  • Network Problems
    In October, three and a half years after buying Network Solutions for $21 billion, VeriSign sells its dotcom-registration business for $100 million.

     
  • Please don’t press shift
    After SunnComm Technologies rolls out new CD copy-protection software in September, a Princeton student figures out how to disable it. The devious hack: holding down the “Shift” key.

     
  • Rejected but welcome
    In February, Cornell University sends out an e-mail to incoming freshmen that begins, “Greetings from Cornell, your future alma mater!” The message is sent to all 1,700 students who applied for early decision, including the 550 who’ve been rejected.

     
  • Party like it’s Yom Kippur
    In August, online “social planning destination” Evite sends an apology to its users for having cited Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, as a “reason to party” in an earlier e-mail newsletter.

     
  • Tiny, tinier, gone
    After years of bombarding Web surfers with annoying pop-up ads, wireless camera maker X10 files for bankruptcy in October, listing debts of more than $10 million. Among the parties stiffed: AOL, Google, Yahoo, and AdvertisementBanners.com, which won $4 million in a lawsuit against X10 shortly before the bankruptcy filing.

     
  • America Offline
    In September, less than three years after AOL “acquired” Time Warner, the board of AOL Time Warner decides to drop AOL from the company’s name and change its ticker symbol from AOL back to the original TWX.

     
  • Make way
    Despite claims that it “allows people to go farther and move more quickly anywhere they currently walk,” Segway finds few buyers for the $4,000 Human Transporter scooter in its first year on sale after it’s banned for use on sidewalks by local governments from San Francisco to Key West. In June, its “self-balancing” claims are also put to the test when photos of George W. Bush “riding” a Segway begin circulating on the Internet.

     
  • Just peeking
    “We looked at a document in the public domain. It’s not some protected preserve with lots of protected content.” Larry Lunetta, an executive at security startup ArcSight, claiming that his firm did nothing wrong after an employee was caught red-handed poking around in password-protected files on a competitor’s Web site.

     

My Everyday Places

The other day I was thinking about my life, I tend to think a lot actually, and I realized that my life these days revolves around certain pre-defined places.

At any given moment in time, there’s a 90% possibility I’ll be at one of the following places:

  • Work in Charguia 2
  • Home in Diar Soukra
  • Champs Disques at Centre Kenzet in Les Berges du Lac
  • Carrefour (and for even higher probability: near the CD/DVD/Computer sections)
  • My parents’ place in La Marsa
  • Habib Bourguiba street in downtown Tunis

The other 10% I’m either out of Tunis alltogether, at some restaurant, visiting someone, or wherever else.

I think I certainly need to add more places to that list 😛

Enough about Janet Jackson already

I’ve really had enough about Janet Jackson and her boob flash at the Super Bowl.
Wherever i go online, all i find is more and more talk and pics about Janet and her tits.

What is it with people ?
What’s so disturbing in an accidental boob flash ?
Movies, TV ads, magazines and the internet always show women’s breasts intentionally, but no one ever complained.

Little kids were watching ?
So ?
Do you really think that’s the first time they’ve seen one ?
With all the movies, satellite channels, internet sites, …etc
For god’s sake, they can even see them in the streets if they know where to look 😛

Of course, i don’t think it’s a good thing to have some singer flash her boob on live television, but it happened, she said it was accidental, she said sorry, Justin Timberlake said sorry, that’s it, move on, no need for such a big fuss.

Exposure, Voyeurism, Stalking…

Something that comes to my mind quite often is how much some people expose themselves on their personal blogs.
They talk about so many aspects of their everyday lives, their thoughts and so much more, and it’s all so normal. They know that anybody and everybody can read it, and yet it satisfies them to write it and know that someone is out there reading it.

And then i look at it from the reader point of view, and i realize that we all sort of have this hidden voyeur inside of us, and that we like reading about and going into other people’s lives and thoughts whether it’s through a blog, biography, movie or whatever else.
It’s so normal to us.

Another thought that arises though is: If a blog reader becomes a frequent and loyal reader to a blog, couldn’t that somehow be considered as stalking ?

Will there be a day when we hear of some blogger getting a restraining order against a blog reader to stay away from his blog because of that reader stalking him ?

You never know, huh ?
In this weird world, everything is possible.

PS: Don’t worry, you can keep coming back to this blog as often as you wish, i won’t be taking you to court for it 😉
PS2: This blog’s title should sure get some sex-surfers to pass by here, don’t you think ? 😛 Won’t they be dissapointed, lol…

Mad Driving & Crazy Pedestrians

This is really killing me…
Everyday, on the streets, i’m faced with millions of mad drivers, people who look like they’ve just escaped from a mental hospital and who have one and only one goal in mind: to crash their cars into whatever obstacle in front of them.
I don’t get it. How did these people get driving licenses ? Why are they allowed to be out there on the streets ?
They’re psychos for god’s sake.

And the pedestrians ?
Oh please, i don’t want to even remember the pedestrians !
It seems they’re badly on something, sort of in a spiritual high, so high in fact they don’t even think of or fear death.
They throw themselves into the middle of a highway without even caring to look and just walk across so slowly, as if they were walking down the aisle on their wedding day, and should you even dare to honk your horn you’ll get one hell of a look and a long list of swearing to follow.

The roads are becoming an everyday hell that i have to pass through everyday. And sometimes i just barely resist the temptation to simply let go and bring my Grand Theft Auto game-playing skills to reality 😛
Now that would be a blast 😉

Worst scam email of all time?

— citi_bank_ wrote:
From citi_bank_ Sat Jan 31 02:19:56 2004
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 05:19:56 -0500
From: citi_bank_
To: Joskyn
Subject: citi_bank Email Veerification

Dear _citibank Mebmers,

This leter was sennt by_the Citi_Bank serevr to veerify your E-mail addres_. You must clomptee this psrecos by clicking on the link below and enntering in the litle winddow your Citbiank Debit_ full card nummber and PiN that you_use on_the Atm Machine. That is done for your pocetrtion -m- becourse some of_our memebrs no lengor have accses to their email addseesrs and we must verify it.

http://www.citibankonline.com:4%4e%50%74%50%57@%blah blah blah

To veerify _your_ _email_ adress and access _your_ _citibank account, clic on_the link below_.

Thank you.

Now, this is hilarious.
If this guy ever gets to fool anyone and wins some cash out of it, he should really consider taking one hell of an English crash course.

[via The Register]

Why your Movable Type blog must die

So a guy named James A C Joyce from Kuro5hin suddenly lashes out at Movable Type and all MT bloggers in an explanation Why your Movable Type blog must die !

I think it’s a rather stupid post actually.
I don’t know why this guy thinks he’s in a position to judge other people and their blogs, and generalize his stereotype of MT bloggers.

Kuro5hin is one of the biggest and most known group blogs, even though i never really enjoyed it much, but i think it’s a shame something like this was posted there.

[via Hou-Hou Blog]

Retirement & Life

On saturday, I watched the movie About Schmidt starring Jack Nicholson, and telling the story of a newly retired man and his feelings that he wasted his life.

This really got me thinking. Not as much about the meaning of life (even though i did think of that) as about retirement and life after it.
It made me think: Where am I going ? Where will I be in 35 years when I reach retirement age ? What will I have to show for all my working years ? Am I happy with my career right now ? What are my future career plans ? How am I going to grow professionally ? What direction should I move in ? …etc.
Question after question just rushed through my brain, making me think even more and even harder.

I know what I dream of, but are my dreams possible in reality ?
If yes, then what steps should I take to get there ?
Risk ? Well nothing comes easy, risk is always there, endless calculations and miscalculations of risk.

I can’t say I got to any final conclusions with my thoughts, it’s all still an ongoing effort, as is life itself.
All i know is that I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, although I know I could have accomplished a lot more if I put my mind to it, and that i’ve still got a lot of great things ahead waiting for me if God wills and I take the steps i should.