Month: March 2004

Innocent in prison? Pay for it!

What do you give someone who?s been proved innocent after spending the best part of their life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn?t commit?

An apology, maybe? Counselling? Champagne? Compensation? Well, if you?re David Blunkett, the UK Labour Home Secretary, the choice is simple: you give them a big, fat bill for the cost of board and lodgings for the time they spent freeloading at Her Majesty?s Pleasure in British prisons.

Now, this is really really weird and very not funny.

[Source: Sunday Herald]

Microsoft NDC 2004

So it soon will be Microsoft North African Developer conference time again.
Yes, it’s been almost a year since the last one.

In fact, my first blog post ever was about NDC 2003.

Anyway, this year’s NDC will take place April 14-16 in Casablanca / Morocco.
I won’t be attending this year.
There’s no way in hell I’m going to pay for a plane ticket and hotel to listen to a bunch of people tell me how great Microsoft’s products are.
Sorry, but I just can’t find Microsoft anywhere on my priority list.
So, till the next NDC in Tunisia, have fun without me…

The slogan they’re using for this NDC is: Get Inside!
Now what kind of dumb slogan is that ?
Get inside what ?!

Anyway Clemens Vasters is going to be speaking at the NDC again, so that should be really good.
Ingo Rammer and Scott Hanselman are going to be there too, but I don’t know if that’s good or not because I have no idea who they are 😛
Excuse my ignorance…

If anyone’s interested in this NDC, check out the website.

Hamas’ Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Assassinated

Israeli aircraft attacked and killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader and founder of Hamas and Israel’s top target this morning as he was leaving a Gaza City mosque.

Yassin, who was in his late ’60s, has been confined to a wheelchair since an accident as a teenager that paralysed him. He is also partially blind.

“This is a crazy and very dangerous act. It opens the door wide to chaos. Yassin is known for his moderation and he was controlling Hamas and therefore this is a dangerous, cowardly act,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurai.

At least nine people died in the attack including at least two of Yassin’s bodyguards. Ten more were wounded.

In an interview with the Washington Post in August 2001, Yassin said he was aware that Israel’s government had targeted him.

“We are a people not afraid of death, and when one of us dies, it’s like a wedding day for him,” Yassin said. “One who is martyred attains a very high spiritual level, and so his death is like a celebration — we offer candy, sweets and cold drinks, because we know he’ll be so high in heaven.”

Living on the Planet

Today is Independence Day in Tunisia, and to mark it Michael Greenwood from Living on the Planet wrote an article about Tunisian blogs.

The blogs mentioned were AquaCool (My wife’s blog), Mouse Hunter #1, and Subzero Blue (This blog), woohoo 😉

Here’s what’s said about this blog:

… Subzero Blue. A great blog from the icecube tray graphic down!

This guy has blogging down pat. He updates regularly, covers a range of topics from music to technology (and looks like 1000+ entries) and provides plenty of credits and links to other people.

Also check out Subzero Blue’s awesome photo gallery.

Wow 🙂

Buddha Quotes

“He is able who thinks he is able.”

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”

“An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”

“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

Pillow Heat-sink

The Chillow is a non-electric heat-sink you put under your pillow to keep it cool at night.

The Chillow was designed to match your body’s cooling needs. At night after an active day, when your metabolism is high and you’re hot, the Chillow is cool and refreshing.

But in the the early a.m. hours, when your metabolism is low due to inactivity, and air temperature is at it’s coolest, the Chillow is lightly cool to lightly tepid, which is exactly the temperature you will enjoy.

After you get out of bed, the Chillow loses any accumulated heat and recharges so it’s ready to go again at naptime, or at bedtime. There is no maintenance required, save sweeping the air out once per month, which takes approx. 20 seconds.

Now, being someone who actually keeps flipping his pillow around looking for a cool place to put his head, this would come in really handy for me.
Aah, what a delight it would be…

[via Boing Boing]

Night Life

Just the other day, my wife told me that I was obviously more of a night person than a day person, which I think might be true.

Anyway, her comment triggered a flashback to a period of my life in which everyone who knew me called me a vampire.

It was back in 1997 in Jordan, and I had just gotten an internet connection of my own at home.
I was over the moon with excitement, and just couldn’t get enough.

In a few days my schedule became as follows:

– Sleep all day long.
– Wake up at midnight and get online (making use of the free connection after midnight offer)
– Disconnect at 7:30AM
– Go to University to attend my morning lectures.
– Go back home at 10AM.
– Go back to sleep.

So basically, I lived in the night during that whole period.
I didn’t see anyone anymore, not even my room mate, because our time schedules weren’t the same.

Another fact that contributed to the nick name “vampire” was my bed. The matress had fallen in between the borders of the bed, making it look more like an open coffin than a bed.
So i actually stepped into bed rather than climbed into it, lol…

So, if you had a friend who slept all day long in some coffin-like bed, and lived during the night, what would you call him ?
Yep, vampire is the word.

I really enjoyed that period of time. Shame it didn’t last for too long 😛
I guess I just realized I needed some daylight, or maybe the telephone bill changed my mind, lol…

Zapatero: “U.S. Should Dump Bush”

Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Wednesday described the U.S. occupation of Iraq as “a fiasco” and suggested American voters should follow the example set by Spain and change their leadership.

“The occupation is a fiasco,” he said. “There have almost been more killed after the war, from a year ago, than during the war. In the end, the occupying forces have not handed over control of the situation to the U.N.

“I said during the campaign I hoped Spain and the Spaniards would be ahead of the Americans for once,” Zapatero said in an interview on Onda Cero radio. “First we win here, we change this government, and then the Americans will do it, if things continue as they are in Kerry’s favor.”

And on the war on terrorism:

“Fighting terrorism with bombs, with Tomahawk missiles, isn’t the way to beat terrorism, but the way to generate more radicalism,” he said.

I can’t help it, I really like this guy…

[Source: Washington Post]