Month: April 2004

Le Quotidien & Al Chourouk Online

The Tunisian “Le Quotidien” and “Al Chourouk” newspapers have gone online today at exactly 10:30AM local time.
Their online addresses are: http://www.lequotidien-tn.com/ & http://www.alchourouk.com/.

I think it’s great that more and more Tunisian newspapers are making the jump towards providing their content online.
I think that providing information online really helps build a bigger internet culture in Tunisia where people get used to going online to do more and more.
I hope more newspapers follow, and that other types of content providers and service providers take the internet leap too.

Back to the Le Quotidien & Al Chourouk websites.
First of all, it’s great the editor was able to release two websites in the same day without any problems. Bravo.

Anyway, the designs are really basic and dry for my taste. Plus they remind me of the Tunis Hebdo website design.
But then again, being newspaper sites, keeping it simple is rather acceptable for most people. The most important is the content.

Regarding the content; they seem to visually display all stories as if they have the same priority and importance which I think shouldn’t be the case.
There should be some way to visually distinguish between news stories based on certain criteria.
Another thing is that I think the sizes of the pictures used should be uniform. It’s friendlier to the eye and better looking that way.

I also don’t see any need to open news stories in popups, they should simply open in the same window. Popups are annoying and unfriendly.

Otherwise, I think this is a pretty good first effort, and I hope my opinions are regarded as constructive criticism.
I wish them the best of luck with their sites.

A9

No I don’t live on another planet, but I just got around to checking out A9 today.

A9 is Amazon’s new search engine. It’s based on Google, but they add other features that they think are interesting.

They actually provide 7 reasons why we should use A9. None of them really convince me though, especially saving my search history, how could that be a good thing?

I like the colours they used for this site though.

They also offer a toolbar which does what most search engine toolbars do from highlighting search words to linking to site info to blocking popups.
One thing this one has that the others don’t is a diary feature that lets you take notes on any web page you visit, and reference them whenever you visit that page, on any computer that you use.
Nice, but not something I’d actually need.

All in all, I don’t think it brings much more to the search engine scene, just more sponsored links and distraction from the actual search results.
I can also imagine how many sticky situations it’s history feature will put some people into 😛

Something I’m interested in though is the name. What does A9 stand for?
Does anyone have a clue?

Jordan: Major Al Qaeda plot disrupted

Jordanian authorities said yesterday that they have broken up an alleged al Qaeda plot that would have unleashed a deadly cloud of chemicals in the heart of Jordan’s capital, Amman.

The plot would have been more deadly than anything al Qaeda has done before, including the September 11 attacks, according to the Jordanian government.

Among the alleged targets were the U.S. Embassy, the Jordanian prime minister’s office and the headquarters of Jordanian intelligence.

The plot was within days of being carried out when security forces broke it up April 20.

Confessions by the planners of the attack were aired on Jordanian TV last night.

Jordanian officials said that if this attack took place it would have been the biggest attack and caused most casualties with as much as 80,000 people dying.

Knowing Jordan and especially Amman very well after living there for 6 years, I agree that an attack on the mentioned targets would take a lot of innocent human lives with it because all the targets are near residential and shopping areas.

This is really disturbing and frightening. And when you actually get to see these people talking so calmly about it on TV, confessing to what they were about to do, explaining it and giving their reasons, it really sends shivers down your spine.

New Iraqi Flag

New Iraq Flag

Iraq’s U.S.-picked leaders approved a new flag for the country…

The new flag includes two blue horizontal stripes signifying the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates. A yellow stripe between the two blue ones symbolizes the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Above the three stripes is a white background with a blue crescent, an Islamic symbol.

But the overhaul of a national symbol raised some complaints — particularly since it came from U.S.-appointed leaders. U.S. administrators previously tried to alter the Saddam-era flag by dropping the words “Allahu akbar” — “God is great” — but Iraqis refused to abide by the change.

The new design not only abandons the symbols of Saddam’s regime. It also avoids the colors used in other Arab flags: green and black for Islam and red for Arab nationalism. The change recalls the U.S. agenda of creating a “New Iraq” that is exceptional in the Arab world.

In Arabic nations, the colors of flags have widely recognized meanings.
Green, white and black denote Islam ? harkening back to the battle banners of the medieval Islamic dynasties of the Fatimids, Ummayads and Abbasids. Green is said to have been the prophet Muhammad’s favorite color;

The only country in the Middle East with blue stripes in its flag is Israel, which has a Star of David on a field of white between horizontal blue bands.

This really sucks!
I’m totally with the Iraqi people who are asking that the flag not be changed until an elected government takes over.
Who are these people to change the flag?
They have no right to!
What they’re doing is disgraceful.
Why don’t they just change the name of the country to Israel 2 while they’re at it!

[More: Yahoo! News]
[Via: Je Blog]

CNET launches free music downloads

CNET, who bought MP3.com last year, have launched a new free music download service allowing users to search and download what it says are thousands of songs contributed by independent and unsigned artists.
That is basically the same thing the original MP3.com did.

The service is based on CNet’s download site and is available at: http://music.download.com/.

The music download service will be separate from the MP3.com Web site, which CNET said it will relaunch soon as a music-information site.

Now, I actually like CNet’s websites and services, they’re a very good source of information (News.com, ZDNet) and downloads (Download.com).
But the step they took when they bought MP3.com was a very stupid one. It had and still has no meaning or goal.

They buy a website, shut it down, then relaunch another website that does exactly the same thing but under another name, thereby losing the brand and followers of the first service, and then they plan to relaunch the original website as something totally different.
I don’t see where all of this is going and what strategy these people are following.

MP3.com was obviously dead internet meat with no real value. (with all due respect to the artists who used to upload their stuff there).
It’s just that, as a Business, MP3.com sucked.
So, why in God’s name CNet thought it was smart to buy it is beyond my brain’s capabilities of understanding.
Maybe they wanted the cool domain name?!

Internet2 sets new speed record

Researchers have set a data transmission record over the Internet2’s high-speed backbone. Data sped between Los Angeles and Geneva 10,000 times faster than a home broadband connection.

The record, announced on Tuesday at the Spring 2004 Internet2 member meeting in Virginia, was for transmitting data over nearly 11,000 kilometres at an average speed of 6.25 gigabits per second. This is nearly 10,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection. The network link used to set the record reaches from Los Angeles to Geneva, Switzerland.

Internet2 is a consortium of more than 200 universities working with industry and government to develop next-generation Internet technology.

The new record used IPv4, the current system for Internet addressing, and was set by members from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Geneva-based CERN. The same team had previously set a new mark of 4 gigabits per second over the same distance using IPv6, the next generation of Internet protocols.

Now that’s perfect beauty, a sweet dream come true…

Dude, with a connection like that we could start tranferring people through the internet 😛

[More: ZDNet]

The Hannibal Channel

So the first private Tunisian TV station, that was code-named Nasr TV, officially has a name and a launch date now.

The name is, hmmm, “The Hannibal Channel”. It should start broadcasting next October on the Hotbird satellite thereby covering most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

According to Mr. Nasra (The owner of the station), about 30 % of the station’s programs will be dedicated to social topics and women’s issues. The rest of the programming will initially include entertainment, sports and culture. The content of the programs will “evolve based on audience demands,” he said.

Now that’s all great, and I can’t wait to watch this channel and see what new it brings to the Tunisian audiovisual landscape.
But, what’s with the name?!

I mean, ok, as a Tunisian I am proud of our history and heritage, but isn’t it enough about that already?
Why does every other company have to be named after Elissa, Hannibal or Carthage?
Not only in Tunisia, the same trend is mirrored all over the world; in Egypt it’s the Pharaohs, in Jordan it’s Petra, …etc.

I’m fed up of these over-used goal-less names.
Has human creativity run dry?

I honestly think that “The Hannibal Channel” is a bad name for a TV channel, it’s not cool, it’s not fresh, it’s not catchy, in short it’s nothing a TV channel’s name should be.
I’m already thinking about what their logo could look like and I don’t want to think no more, it’s simply a nightmare.

The other day I was zapping through satellite channels, and I ran across an Egyptian channel called Nefertiti. I just laughed at how stupid a name that was and passed.
I wish that wouldn’t have to happen to the first private Tunisian channel.

If anyone from The Hannibal Channel reads this, please consider changing the name while you still can.

International Book Fair

The International Book Fair is being held in the Kram Fair these days.
We went there yesterday, but as it was late, we only got to see part of it. So we went back today to check out the rest.

Publishers from many countries were present at the fair, but the most were from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia.

I love the book fair, and I never miss it. It’s just great to be between all of those books.
It always amazes me when I think how much knowledge there is in the world. And it makes me happy to see that there a lot of people who still read books and enjoy them.

We spent over 100 Dinars at the fair. A fact I only realized when I got in the car when we were going home. I guess we just got a bit carried away 😛

From what we say, we felt that most people were buying books about religion, novels and kids books.
Not much people were crowding the stands selling books about politics, unlike last year.

What I found funny though is how some people were buying these books that come in a number of volumes, and I’m talking minimum 10 volumes, when I could swear they’d never read them and that they’re just buying them because they’d look good in their librairies 😛

As for me, I bought 3 books about Islam (2 about Islamic teachings, ideals and laws and 1 which provides explanations for the Quran and it’s verses).
I also bought a novel by George Orwell called Nineteen Eighty-Four, which is a view by the writer of a future in which we’re all being watched over by Big Brother. That reminded me a lot of where we’re going today.
I loved George Orwell’s style ever since I read Animal Farm in school, and I’m sure this will be a great read.

I also bought 2 DVDs: The Two Towers and The Usual Suspects (Collector’s Edition). 2 great movies I’ve been dying to get on DVD.

We also bought Kalila & Dimna, a great book I actually have but can’t find. This book was originally written in Indian, translated to Persian and then translated to Arabic. It has a number of short stories using animals as it’s characters but that actually talks about politics, power, greed and other concepts from the real human world.

Another great book I used to have and lost that we bought today is The Book of Misers. This is a really funny book consisting of short stories about people who are anything but generous.

An interesting book my wife bought is called Genetic Engineering in the Quran. I can’t wait to read it too.

It pisses me off that I can’t find as much English books as I wish though. Even the Canadian and American stands had French books only 🙁
I only found some novels at some Tunisian publisher’s stands.
I understand why, but still it pisses me off 😛

I wish I could go back again and buy more books, but I’m going to do my best not to, because If I do, my finances will have a hard time.

The US Election for the Rest of The World

World Peace Society: We’d love you to vote in the U.S. Election for the Rest of the World. We think it’s pretty obvious to everyone but perhaps those inside America what the rest of the world thinks in the forthcoming U.S. Election.

Please spend 1 or 2 seconds voting at World Peace Society and maybe another minute telling as many people as you can about it.

We need thousands of votes to make it meaningful, so we desperately need your help. Imagine how cool it would be to help the U.S. with their presidential selection, Lord knows, they ‘help’ every other country with theirs!

[Via Bouillabaisse]