Month: September 2005

eBay Buys Skype

eBay will be acquiring Skype, the global Internet communications company, for approximately $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock.
It will make a further payout of up to $1.5 billion if certain financial targets are met.

I’m not too sure what to think about this.
Everyone seems to be jumping on the messaging and VoIP bandwagon with or without a goal nowadays.

The press release says a lot about how great a combination the two companies are although I honestly can’t see how.

Ok, there could be an integration between eBay’s auction services and the Skype messenger allowing people to directly get in touch with each other through the messenger or for auction notifications to pop up while you’re chatting.
But I don’t really see this as a good enough reason to go and toss out all that money.

Some people think eBay might be after the 52 million people who downloaded Skype, but I don’t really think so.
I think the Skype users who do buy or sell online through auctions are most probably already eBay users, and those who aren’t won’t really buy or sell online because of this, they’ll only do it when they need to.

Anyway I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out in the end.

The Simpsons in Arabic

A few days ago while watching MBC, they were showing some of the stuff they’ll be airing in Ramadhan, which is just around the corner now, and to my surprise an Arabic version of “The Simpsons” is in the schedule.

It will be called “Al Shamshoon” and dubbed in the Egyptian Accent.

Mohamed Heneidi will be lending his voice to Homer (Omar in the Arabic version), Hanan Turk to Bart and Lisa, and Rojeena to Marge.

The Arabized, or should I say Egyptianized, versions of animations that I’ve seen before were pretty decent and sometimes funny, but I’m not so sure about how “The Simpsons’ would turn out.

Shows like “The Simpsons”, “Futurama” and “Southpark” for example aren’t really the kind of shows that could be translated well into our language and culture, especially when you mean to show it in Ramadhan.
A lot of references to Alcohol, sex, God and other taboos that just won’t fit in.

“Southpark” was actually arabized in Kuwait, but they took the idea and redid the whole thing with new characters and another approach to its humor.
Maybe it would have been better to do something like that with “The Simpsons’.

Anyway, I’ll be checking it out, and I hope it turns out good, although the bits I saw in the preview weren’t too promising.

Other blogs talking about this: Savior Machine, Symbols.

Robot Sex Dolls

German inventor and aircraft mechanic Michael Harriman from Nuremberg claims that he has created the world’s most sophisticated robot sex doll.

The sex androids have “hearts” that beat harder during sex, breathe harder and have internal heaters to raise the body temperature – but their feet stay cold “just like in real life”.

The dolls sold under the Andy brand name are on offer for US$7,350 each for the basic model, with extra charges for adaptations like extra large breasts.

The model can also be made to move by remote control, wiggling her hips under the bedclothes and making other suggestive movements – all at the touch of a button.

The inventor says: “They are almost impossible to distinguish from the real thing, but I am still developing improvements and I will only be happy when what I have is better than the real thing.”

What do I think?
Pathetic and crazy…
Couldn’t this guy find anything more useful for humanity to invent?

[Source: Ananova]

The Gate of the Sun

La Porte du Soleil

Today we watched a French produced Arabic movie called Bab El Shams (La Porte du Soleil, The Gate of the Sun). It’s based on the novel by Elias Khoury and directed by Yousry Nasrallah.

The movie tells a number of people’s intertwined stories, and through their stories tells the story of Palestine and the Palestinian people.

The whole story is told pretty objectively and touches on all sides.

It starts when Palestine was under British colonization, when the whole Zionist-state idea started coming into place, and shows how the Palestinian people suffered and were thrown out of their homes and lands under the pretense that Israel was securing its borders (which reminds us of the apartheid wall today).

The movie goes on to show how Arabs didn’t do enough to help Palestinians and that many armies were just sitting around doing nothing while Palestinians were being killed and driven out of their lands, just because they didn’t have any orders from their leaders.

It then follows the journey of Palestinians and how they were thrown in different countries where they were never accepted and were hated. It talks of how some of these Arab countries totally supported the Palestinian cause but hated Palestinians.

It also shows how Palestinians then found themselves having to work for Israelis on their own lands to survive.

The movie isn’t a political one though, it’s a bunch of life stories, through which history is told, but it talks about so much more, it talks about love, hope, traditions, values, women and so much more.
It’s not a movie against Jews, just like one of the characters in the movie says: “Palestinians are not anti-semitic”. In fact it shows how they were better educated, more organized and civilized in their camps.

The movie is very well done; Technically marvelous, great directing, wonderful photography, really nice soundtrack and wonderful acting by the whole cast.

It must be one of the best Arabic movies ever made, and I totally recommend watching it.

My score for it: 8.5/10.

Over the Border of Tunisia

“Over the Border of Tunisia”, a series of Oud concerts, that look at the oud from three different angles, will take place starting from October 30 in Amsterdam.

The event will start on October 30th with the concert of Rabih Abou-Khalil, which is entitled “Jazz Ballads from the East”. In his contemporary jazz and non-Western quintet, the oud is the leading instrument in the concert.

On December 11th, Hesperion XXI’s concert entitled “the Lost Paradise”, the oud is played as an accompanying and ensemble instrument, along with a few improvised solos based on manuscripts from the 13th century.

And on April 9th, Dhafer Youssef’s concert entitled “Echo from the Past”, the oud returns to its origins, in the stirring, spiritual and plaintive melodies of Tunisia and other Arabic cultures, as well as in his own compositions.

More info on the event and tickets is available here.

Harry Potter Books Go Digital

J.K. Rowling has made all six Potter novels available for audio downloads.

The digital audiobooks are being released by the Random House Audio Trade Group. They can be purchased through Apple’s iTunes store, for prices ranging from $32.95 for a single book to $249 for the whole series, which, according to Random House, includes a “full color digital booklet” and “previously unreleased readings” by Rowling.

Rowling’s fantasy series, most recently “Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince,” has sold more than 200 million copies worldwide in print editions and more than 5 million as audiobooks, narrated by Grammy winner Jim Dale. But up to now the author had only permitted paper and traditional audio releases.

I think the concept of audio books in an interesting one, although I don’t think I’d ever buy one. I’m more of a real book person; I love the touch, feel and smell of the paper. When I’m reading a book, it’s personal; It’s just me and the book, no one else.
I guess it just wouldn’t feel the same hearing it being read by someone else.

Blogmania in the Maghreb

Afrique Magazine has a feature article by the name “Blogmania Au Maghreb” talking about blogging in the Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Algeria, Morroco, Libya & Mauritania).

The article highlights the Tunisian bloggers as the pioneers in the region, which I think is really cool.

A number of blogs from across the region are mentioned, among them mine (Wow!), as well as Adib, Dasdous, Etta, Geronimo, Manal, Lady M, Alger Intime and more.
It’s a shame that some of the very important and pioneering blogs from the region were left out.

The article didn’t really go too deep into the world of blogs, it just touched on the main lines. Anyway, I think it’s great that we’re getting some coverage in the press and that now more and more people will learn about blogs and will start blogging too.
Hopefully for future articles writers will get more in touch with the bloggers and why not even attend blogger meetups.

I bought the magazine yesterday after I heard about the article from other bloggers, and it’s a real pleasure to see blogs and bloggers highlighted.

Karim has scanned the article and made it into a PDF file for everyone to read online here. It’s in French though.

My Traveller Wish

One of my ultimate wishes would be to get to work on something like those travel shows they put on TV; getting to travel to a new country every week, discovering new places, seeing new people, knowing new cultures, tasting new types of food, learning of different customs and traditions… and then reviewing them for the whole world.

That’s something I would totally love to do, something that would make me really really happy.

I’ve always loved travel and found it very enriching. I think I am a more understanding person because of all the travel I’ve done and the different people I’ve met.

Being able to do it all the time as a job would just be a magical dream come true.
For the time being though, all I can do is wish.
Unless someone out there is willing to finance me to travel around the world and blog about it. Anyone?

links for 2005-09-08