Forgotten Fun

I went sandboarding again yesterday. This time we went to a place with higher dunes called Kataneya. I have to admit I haven't had that much fun in ages. I think I forgot what it was like to have fun :). Seriously...the scenery was breathtaking, the boarding was thrilling, the company was hilarious, the picture taking was great and the weather was crisp. The azure skies and the yellow sea of sand engulfed us into its beauty and spellbinding silence.

Night fell...slowly but surely the sun went down below the horizon leaving its trail of red tainted sky and cotton wool clouds. The shadows grew and the darkness slowly spread its cloak over the surrounding desert. The stars and planets came out of hiding and twinkled with a brightness and clarity unknown to city dwellers.

The trip was almost perfect :D







You know how much you enjoyed a trip by the memories it leaves you...

Whale Valley & Sandboarding

I had a blast yesterday! I went on a trip to Wadi el-hitan (The Valley of Whales). It was a trip of many first-timers. It was the first time that I went on an off-road trip in the Western desert. It was the first time I sandboarded.

It was amazing to see the flat plains just West of 6 of October city turn to rocky formations of cliffs and wind carved structures. The terrain then morphed into a flat pebble filled desert. Then we came to the valley of whales which once was home to numerous prehistoric species and the Tethys Sea. This was a feeding ground which brought together many species some 25 million years ago. The whales had scrawny legs back then! :D. Although some on the trip disliked the notion of going through all this trouble to see a pile of bones, I was lost in imagination. I could picture the water beasts and amphibious creatures of age and was astonished at how different it had become.



The day was running late as we dined on barbecued burgers and kofta. We were dreading the sun setting on us without us experiencing sandboarding. We got to a dune some time later and made our way up. OUCH! for me and my full stomach, it was 1000 times worse than the worst workout I had ever done.

The first time I went down I stubbornly insisted on sliding down with my shoes on. Unfortunately my shoes were not properly fit into the straps and so I fell like a boomerang across the face of the dune. The board was attached to my foot by a heel strap and so I couldn't get loose. I learned my lesson and did what everyone was doing. I took off my shoes. Thank goodness I was able to actually sandboard then. I didnt fall much after that until after I completed the dune and hit level pebbly sand.



The journey back to Cairo was a blast too. We sang all the way back. We sang an African camp song which Pablo (our Spanish trip-mate) taught us...:D.

I will hopefully be doing this soon isA. I look forward to it.

Ghandi's Seven Evils

Mahatma Gandhi's wisdom on "Traits Most Spiritually Perilous to Humanity"

Wealth Without Work

Pleasure Without Conscience

Science Without Humanity

Knowledge Without Character

Politics Without Principal

Commerce Without Morality

Worship Without Sacrifice


Wow, very intense words. If you think about them you'll find that they are indeed true.

New Pyramid Discovered!

Egypt truly is the land of the pyramids and hosts one of the greatest heritages man has to cherish. There have been 100+ pyramids discovered in Egypt. I'm sure there are many more buried in the dunes of time. Two alone were discovered this year - one this last month.

One clear day I went up to the Moqattam plateau in the heart of Cairo and could count about five pyramids lined up across, where the western desert meets the Nile banks. I could see the three on the Giza plateau, the Djozer stepped pyramid of Sakkara and as I recall two from the Dahshur pyramids (the bent and the red pyramids). The great pyramid of Khufu is the last remaining ancient wonder of the world. The bent and red pyramids were built for king Snefru (father of Khufu). I haven't actually been to Sakkara and Dahshur. I can't believe I haven't...hopefully soon...



I'm surprised I haven't written more about Ancient Egypt, especially since I've been deeply fascinated by it ever since I was a kid. I even contemplated doing an Egyptology major in university - that would have really changed my life! :D

The link to the latest pyramid discovery:
HERE

Speak Up!

Sometimes you speak up and express your opinion and find the whole world opposing your views and ridiculing them. This is unpleasant and sometimes hard to deal with. However hurtful it may seem it is much better than being perpetually silent and keeping yourself shut up for the fear of ridicule. As long as the words you say are carefully measured and fit between the boundaries of the context in which they are inserted then you can feel confident to speak up and be heard. Make sure that the words you speak are also hurting in anyway to anyone your listeners.



Just as a warning somethings should not be said at certain times, at particular places or to specific people. Carefully weigh your words before you say them. Remember the adage, "look before you leap" and "think before you speak". If you are speaking in the context of a meeting about a certain subject then don't hesitate to challenge others and express your point of view of course without saying anything that could be found religiously or personally offending. Keeping yourself shut up is contagious to ones self. You'll keep taking the easy way out and silencing yourself.

On another thought, some people are amazing talkers but horrible listeners. I think to make a good speaker one must possess the patience and ability to listen to others and absorb the information before reacting. Speaking and listening compliment each other. People think and speak at different speeds so adapt yourself to different types of people.

One Heck of a Documentary!

Just finished watching part II of "When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions". It was utterly breathtaking to watch every minute of it. I still haven't watched part III but definitely look forward to it.



Anyone with interest in space, technology and scientific success stories would find this documentary childishly spell-binding.

My advise -> Get it & watch it!

It shows that inspiration, aspiration, perspiration and determination can make wonders.

Seriously Breathtaking!

Some of the most unbelievable and breathtaking pictures Ive seen.

Check them out HERE

Photos that Changed the World!

The link below displays some of the most famous and controversial pictures. Some of them are horrifying so please be warned.

www.photosthatchangedtheworld.com

Obama's Historical Acceptance Speech

This morning I watched the rerun of the acceptance speech by Barack Obama at day 4 of the DNC. It was held in a Denver football stadium which hosted about 80,000 people. The mood and atmosphere was ecstatic and movie-like. There was everything from fireworks, confetti and roaring crowds to an exceedingly well delivered speech. There was theme music that made you feel the depth of the moment like when your watching the end of a historical movie like "The Patriot" or "Braveheart". Even the ties of Obama and Joe Biden represented the blue and red of the American colors. The background stage just behind the podium had a window design that reminded me of the white house windows and appeared as he spoke and greeted his family and vice. It was all meant to look like he was standing on the white house lawn.



This speech was a historical moment for many Americans as it coincided with the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. Some of the audience were in tears because of the meaning of the moment. It represented what Martin Luther dreamed of; a United States that knew no discrimination and segregation. This dream was solidified and materialized into that moment as a black American of Kenyan descent stood as the Democratic Presidential nominee.

Barack's speech as many of his previous was outstandingly constructed. It went from the official show-biz kind of acceptance to describing his proposed policies (domestic and foreign) to how he would finance his plans to attacking his opponent to getting personal by talking about his family and life. It was a comprehensive and well prepared speech. He was not reading from a paper or anything of the sort...wow...wish I could do that!

The Republicans only fighting card now is to attack Obama's inexperience. They say McCain is the true changer. He is the only one with enough experience in politics to battle for the changes America needs. It was a clever move from Obama's campaign to select Joe Biden as his running mate. Joe Biden is an aggressive debater and a well experienced member of the political arena. I believe in the end it is the policies that dictate the debate. Inexperience is one thing to consider, but you have to look at the broader perspective of policies each candidate puts forth. It is true that McCain has stood next to Bush in his decisions 90% of the time and voted 23 times against the bill to support renewable energy. Obama said, "It's not that McCain does not care, it's that he does not know" how health care has failed Americans, how war veterans are homeless, how people are loosing their homes, how people can't afford proper education...etc. I hope Barack wins because he plans to increase research funding at universities in the US and I know I want to do my PHD sometime in the future, isA.

Anywayz I look forward to seeing the clashes and dramatic debates between the two and November 4th awaits to be seen...

ps: You can see the video of the speech on Youtube

Green Concrete

A new German invention....air-purifying concrete....CLICK HERE

Catalytical Confidence

Just a thought...

Confidence is a catalyst of the human character. It enhances workmanship and skill and allows a person to express his/her opinion, views and emotions untainted by the fear of sarcastic feedback.

Some people have it at birth, others acquire it naturally from their environment, some acquire it through hardship and few never possess it.

Confidence is a worthy trait to have so don't take it lightly and try to gain it if you lack it.

But remember not to be over-confident, because humbleness is also a virtue.

Confidence must be softened by humbleness and the ability to accept other points of views. Balance these characteristics carefully because a tilt to either extreme may destroy both.

LOL, I sound like a preacher....was just thinking out loud...

Galleria!

Click on the images for the real experience!

king Pigeon



Silhouette



Who's There?



Silent Red



Intrusion



Star

Photo Frenzy

I can honestly say I'm now an official addict of photography. I'm legally obsessed with the world of still-image capturing. :D

It's quite distracting actually. I'm still learning to control its power over me. I'm getting the hang of it!!!

I was actually selected as "Best of 2008 Photography" by an online competition @ www.photolaureates.org. My picture will be published in a coffee-table anthology along with other privileged photographers. I have been selected as a finalist for the grand prize of $6500. I doubt I'll win that because the picture I took (which you can see below) is not really a winner. It was an experiment and it turned our quite colorful and crisp but it isn't really that strange or awesome enough to win, or so I hope not....hehe.

Here's the pic:



Now I dream of what I may be able to do if I had a DSLR and a flight to an exotic destination...:D

Cheers!

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the very first time, I played on a Wii and absolutely loved it. Its one hell of a revolutionary gaming console. It just needs better graphics and will be sure to occupy the majority of the market if no other vendor catches up with this technology which has been around for a while.

I played Wii sports; boxing, tennis and bowling. I also played Rockband which is utterly amazing. I'm best on the drums when things don't get to messy and offbeat...:D and singing believe it or not. I scored 100% on a couple of songs and was labeled "Serious Skill" numerous times with scores in the 90s.

My arm is aching from the tennis. I hit the ball so hard. Although the ball doesn't move that accurately relative to my stroke its enjoyable all the same. Its more like doing the right gesture that the console interprets as a stroke which in reality is nothing like it.

Can't wait to check out Zelda and the rest of the games...

Night Shots

I've always adored the night's sky. So here's a bunch of pix I took with long exposure. Note: you got to click on each pic to see the stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An Egyptian Owl

It was a hot, static, full moonlit night. I was sitting out in the garden with some relatives. I caught sight of a flutter of wings and something big landing on an exposed branch further down the garden. I instantly recognized the peculiar shape in the dim light. It was an owl. It was the first time I and all my relatives who have been living in Egypt all their lives witnessed the freakishness, yet awesome presence of such a clandestine bird of prey.

Here it is,



I got pretty darn close to it. I was standing right under it and it looked down at me with those huge freaky black eyes. It was like an alien perched up on the branch thinking, "what is that idiot human staring at?".



Call us superstitious morons, but we could not help not feeling the bad omen. Owls are known in some parts of the world to be bad omens. Some parts of the world believe the eared owls represent wisdom and the ear-less owls are harbingers of death. Rabena yostor isA.

The Ancient Egyptians drew their hieroglyphics owl symbol with a broken leg as to prevent it from coming to life and bringing evil.

Quite an interesting incident...

A One Day Kitten Named Java

I had a kitten again for the first time in ages last night. A friend of mine brought it to work to see if any one wanted to adopt it. I took it home for one night but had to give it back the next day.

Here is Java - a darn cute, fun, jovial, mischievous fluff ball.



Loved the night she spent pooping on my bed and spreading a trail of excretion across my sheets. Enjoyed every moment of it :D



Will miss you Java,

Can you spot the spider?

The picture below has a camouflaged spider in it. It is a tiny very pale green spider that just happened to be in the path of my lens.



You can't actually see all of the spider. Its hidden behind the petals. I wish I could have gotten a better shot of it especially when it spun a thread of silk and descended into the grass. I lost it at that point. Well you can just make out the leg of the spider sticking out of the lower right side of the flower.

Here's another interesting pictures. I love the colors in this one. There are no spiders here...

Obama 6 superdelegates away from clinching the nomination!

Currently Obama stands 6 delegates away from the "magic number" needed to win the democratic nomination. That number is 2118. The super delegates are voting for who they want to lead the party in the presidential elections. The number is rising as we speak on yet another Super Tuesday! A few minutes ago he was at 2108...he just won 4 super delegates. On the other hand Clinton is still at 1912 and has already said she is open to become Obama's number 2.

There is still lots to be done by Obama. He is still very low in the blue-collar, non-college degree voters. He has to win over these voters to beat the republicans.

Let's see what unfolds...

Oh he just won one more!!! Now he stands at 2113

Computer Vision Vs. Image Processing

Computer vision is different to image processing.

Image processing tends to focus on 2D images. It look at how to transform one image to another by pixel-wise operations such as contrast enhancement, local operations such as edge extraction or noise removal, or geometrical transformations such as rotating the image. This characterization implies that image processing neither require assumptions nor produce interpretations about the image content. Computer vision tends to focus on the 3D scene projected onto one or several images, e.g., how to reconstruct structure or other information about the 3D scene from one or several images. Computer vision often relies on more or less complex assumptions about the scene depicted in an image.

How bad does it make you feel?

I was driving to work today and found two well-dressed guys in an elegant black car. The guy in the passenger's seat rolled down his window half-way and threw out a crumpled up bag of crisps.

My jaw dropped in disgust. I hate it when I see that!!!!!

Is the element of cleanliness and littering oblivious in the educational system of Egypt? I was taught at school as far back as I can remember, never to litter and the effects of rubbish on the environment...etc. I was brought up in an environment where littering was frowned upon.

I really hate seeing people littering, let alone decent-looking people who I assume to be educated.

Who is to blame? Part II

I was driving along today and saw a micro-bus swerve to the "side" to drop off some passengers. In actual fact the micro-bus driver's definition of "side" was quite distorted. He stopped one lane left of the right side of the road. There was one whole lane to the right of him. He did not bother to stop on the side of the road, so essentially he had stopped somewhat in the middle of the road. There was no excuse for this.

I started thinking and discovered there was another element in the equation of system breakdown which I described in part one of this post.

The other element is apathy, laziness and lack of manners and etiquette thrown in together to produce a mixed characteristic. The driver of the mini-bus was not bothered to think about the hordes of cars behind him. He felt that it was his right to stop there as he did in the middle of the road and drop some passengers off, even though he stopped one lane short of the right place to stop. Could it be due to the fact that there was a second row of cars parked in the lane that he should have stopped in. The second row of cars was further up the road so he could have still parked to the side, dropped off the passengers and not bothered the cars behind him. This is besides the fact that People are too lazy to look for a real parking place so they park in a second row next to the first row of parked cars. Anywayz this does not change the fact that the micro-bus was ill-mannered.

Then you start to think of the driver and the background that he has come from. Is he to blame? Or is it the medium in which he was brought up in. Is the educational system to blame? Is it due to lack of awareness? Should there be ways of making the masses aware through the media like TV, radio...etc. Should there be awareness programs to try and help the common people? I'm afraid to say the system has failed again. The reasons for this are many and complicated. Some of them include poverty, backwardness, development...etc.

I wish things would change overnight. There is always a first step to be taken. I hope its taken soon.

Can't talk to them until they...

Sometimes some of the greatest and most developed countries and peoples in the world speak words of bull****.

When a fight breaks up between two entities over money and the entity that claims the money says,

"We won't negotiate until you pay me the money!"

Depending on the circumstances of course - in most cases the whole quarrel is based on the money, so you cannot demand the money before negotiating. What you must do is sit down and discuss the problematic issue (which is the money!) and then come to a monetary conclusion or settle on a financial agreement.

I just found this synonymous to the fact that the current US administration and the British prime minister say that they won't talk to Hamas until Hamas recognizes the state of Israel.

The whole issue here is that Hamas does not recognize Israel because it sees it as the occupier of their land. The whole problem of peace in the middle east is based on this. The US is refusing to talk to Hamas until they "recognize the state of Israel". You cannot ask one party in any quarrel to first obey the opposing party and then be eligible to negotiate. Its absolute lunacy!

Thank goodness Obama sees this. He has criticized the current ruling administration and said many times: you cannot refuse to open dialogs with one of the fundamental parties in the middle east unrest. He believes that Bush junior's policies of silence has not brought anything but a downside in the reputation of the US and has made things worse and worse. He believes that settling any problem means sitting down and conversing with the opposition. I believe this to be the correct attitude...hope he wins...

Glory Glory Man United!!!

Again they prove themselves to be the best in the world...
My blood is in that club. Many of my friends know this. My grandfather played for Manchester United back in 1925. Recently I got hold of a letter inviting my grandfather to the centennial celebration of MANU club!!!


Anywayz...Manchester United came back again to be Premier league winners and Champions league champions!!!



Here's the Manchester United anthem:

Glory, glory, Man United,
Glory, glory, Man United,
Glory, glory, Man United,
As the reds go marching on, on, on.

Just like the Busby Babes in Days gone by
We’ll keep the Red Flags flying high
You’ve got to see yourself from far and wide
You’ve got to hear the masses sing with pride

United! Man United!
We’re the boys in Red and we’re on our way to Wem-be-ly
Wem-be-ly! Wem-be-ly!
We’re the famous Man United and we’re going to Wem-ber-ly
Wem-be-ly! Wem-ber-ly!
We’re the famous Man United and we’re going to Wem-ber-ly

In Seventy-Seven it was Docherty
Atkinson will make it Eighty-Three
And everyone will know just who we are
They’ll be singing ‘Que Sera Sera’

United! Man United!
We’re the boys in Red and we’re on our way to Wem-ber-ly
Wem-be-ly! Wem-ber-ly!
We’re the famous Man United and we’re going to Wem-ber-ly
Wem-be-ly! Wem-ber-ly!
We’re the famous Man United and we’re going to Wem-ber-ly

Glory Glory Man United
Glory Glory Man United
Glory Glory Man United
As the Reds Go Marching On! On! On! (3x)

:D

Glory Glory Man United

Busy Bee

I must say being busy is a blessing. Very often I find myself tormented under the stress and pressure of deadlines and workload. Although mentally I am getting battered and battered by work and more work, I feel a sense of accomplishment far more valuable than lazing around in free time. After a long hard week of work, the wonderful weekend arrives and you are able to finally unlock the shackles of strain and bath in your own time...:D. Unfortunately when you have masters work too then you don't really have a weekend of free time...hehe. You get battered and battered in another dimension, especially if your doing your thesis!!!

I guess the most important thing is to balance your life out between work, studying, your own time, your family and friends, SPORTS and the mashaweer (chores) you just have to do. Its hard some times, but if you keep on complaining that there is no time then you wont end up accomplishing any of it.

So quit the complaining!!!!

There is one simple principle: "When you sit down to do something...do it!"

Who is to blame?

Very often I find myself in a puzzle. I was driving one day with a friend of mine and a public transport bus stopped in the middle of the road. He cut off one of the lanes of the two-lane corniche road. He did not give a signal, no hazard lights...nothing - just stopped to pick up passengers. My friend reached across and punched the horn down to express our anger and frustration. The bus driver simply stuck out his left arm out the window and gestured with an open palm to go ahead and use the free lane he hadn't blocked. Call him cold-blooded, call him ignorant, call him what you will. I signaled left and overtook the bus. He shouted out the window. I couldn't hear what he said and I decided not to bark back.

Afterwards I started thinking...

Who was to blame? The bus stopped in the middle of the road because he couldn't really stop any closer to the pavement because there were hordes of people standing on the road struggling to get a chance to ride. Are the people to blame for standing on the road? The pavement as far as I remember was too narrow and the bus stop was unable to accommodate all those people. It was basically survival of the fittest. The fastest would get to ride first and take the place of the slower less fortunate. Who designed the bus stop? Was he to blame? I dont think anybody actually designed the bus stop. Who designed the road with no off-road area for the bus to pick up passengers? Who designed the road with no hard-shoulder? Was he to blame? What about the inefficient public transport system? Did anybody design anything? Was it designed a long time ago and cannot be enhanced or adapted?

I believe it is the whole system that has failed and fallen apart. Scalability is among key design features for any system. Learning from previous mistakes is also a virtue. Learning from entities with more experience is another way of learning. Still new cities are being built with nothing being learned. 6th October is becoming more and more like down town and Madinat Nasr (places of extreme traffic jams and crowded streets). The streets are still narrow and are usually taken up by a row of parked cars and in many cases a second parallel row. Is there any foresight? When you build something - shouldnt you think of the consequences of building it? Shouldnt you think of trying to accomodate as many people as possible? Are there places to park? ...etc...etc

There are just so many situations where you see people pointing fingers and barking at each other. Its a constant factor in big cities in developing nations. People are always frustrated at others.

Another incident happened to me as I was riding with a friend. The friend was over-speeding on a highway. Again this was on a two-lane road. There was a slower car driving along in the fast lane. I can't really remember if the right lane was occupied or free. My friend slowed down suddenly meters away from the car in front and flashed the lights and beeped the horn several times until the car swerved aside to allow us passage. My friend cursed the other driver and went on going. I find myself in both situations. I find myself the speeder who gets frustrated at the slower car in the fast lane even though the other car is driving within the speed limits and I'm over speeding. I also find myself in the fast lane confident that I'm driving exactly as fast as the speed limit and I find pleasure in keeping to the fast lane as a car behind me barks and barks :D.

Who is wrong here? Is it the speed limit :)? Is is the speeder? Is it the slower car keeping to the speed limit in the fast lane? Is it the highway designer? Is it the lack of awareness and driving ethics?

Again - Who is to blame?

PS: One thing I do know is that speeding kills

War Everywhere!

What is it about Arabs and inner conflicts? As I write this entry there is fighting between the Sudanese government and rebels, Lebanese army and HezbAllah, Fatah and Hamas in Palestine, Iraqi government against militia and religious sect militias against each other.

Why is this happening in this region of the world? What is the link between this region and the enraging and devastating wars? Is it due to ignorance and lack of education? Is it due to one of the seven sins of humans -> Greed? Is it hatred? Maybe the insidious evil nature of mankind? Maybe corruption?

Well nothings black and white, it could be due to all the reasons above. Could be due to none. I don't know anymore. I just hope things get better...:(

Obama!

If I was an american, I would support Obama all the way. Naturally I would hate to see another Republican president after the disastrous Bush junior.
All the same, this US presidential election is very different. It has the oldest contender, the first female runner and the first African American candidate. For the first time I've found myself obsessed with the US campaign trail. I remember I was also into the Bush I vs. Clinton I and then Al Gore vs. Bush II. I remember the happiness when there were false claims that Al Gore had won over the controversy that took place in Florida state. I remember the sadness as Bush II won again and went on to another period of being the worst president in the history of the US.

Just this morning North Carolina was declared an Obama state by a large margin of 56 to 42 percent. In the Indy primary unfortunately Obama lost by a narrow 2 percent.

Obama's origin, character and of course his policies are what makes him different. He is the son of a Kenyan man and a white American. He is exceedingly charismatic - "Yes we can!" :). His speeches were turned into clips on youtube and music videos. I've never seen a presidential candidate speak like I saw Obama speak after the first incident with his former reverend. He speaks down to earth and charismatically feels like the basketball coach down the road...hehe.



He opposes war. He wants to open dialogs with foreign countries. He is active in the international arena. His health care policies is beneficial for the US people - "I believe that the millions of Americans who can't take their children to a doctor when they get sick have that right...". He has foresight in the energy crisis with his energy & environment plans. His policies should increase investments in infrastructure, energy independence, education and R&D. He also wants to modernize and simplify taxation and implement trade policies that benefit the US and also increase the export of American goods.

I think he should be the next US president. He'll cleanup the rubbish of his predecessor. If you think otherwise, let me know...

Clusty

An interesting search engine which clusters results into categories.

Try it here

Whats wrong with the Toktok?

Many people have been talking about the toktok and how its not a civilized approach to transportation. I hate it when people use the corresponding Arabic words for "not civilized". To be honest this country lacks many aspects of civilization. All we care about is looking civilized when in actual fact we are years behind.



I believe recently the authorities have decided to banish the toktok from Egyptian sands. I see this as a foolish decision. When you decide on something, you must think of the consequences to yourself and the others who will be affected by this decision. The toktok is an excellent means of transportation over short distances in remote areas of Cairo. If you take this away many people will suffer. Find another cheap solution before you take this away. Think about the people. That is being civilized.

Another problem we face in West Cairo is the "highway" called the Mehwar. There was no maintenance done to the highway throughout its lifetime. Now they are in the process of redoing it and still they yet to learn that there is something called a hard shoulder which is an empty lane reserved for broken down cars...etc. They also want to stop the micro-buses from stopping on the highway. This again is the black and white decision making of the authorities. What will people who live around the highway do? They will have no easy means of transportation. They will surely suffer. Wouldn't it be better if we offered them another solution, if we thought about them for a second, if we thought about their rights as citizens in Greater Cairo.

Te2ool lee meen? ("Who do you tell?" - an Arabic expression of hopelessness)

Masr Om El Donia!!! ("Egypt - the mother of the world")

:D

Telescope? Did I order a telescope? Oh yes...

Ah yes...now I remember! I ordered a telescope in December of last year.
Have I received it?
Nope. The customs put me through hell. So I was forced to forfeit it.
Why?
Because they believe a telescope is associated with explosives, weapons and ammunition.
What the hell?
Yes, its true. They offered me a choice though. Which was very good of them :).
I could either go ahead with the transaction and pay taxes equal in amount to the price of the telescope and then pay a further pricey fee for a metaphysical test on the telescope which would then dictate whether or not this type of telescope was banned.
The other option was to disown it and donate it to the government. The last option which I initially decided to go with, was to reship it out. I though of shipping it to my family in the UK...but NOOO!!! It has to be shipped to the same country from which it came from or otherwise they will think I was trading telescopes. Then I discovered that to reship it out to the US alone would cost a considerable sum, let alone shipping it later to the UK.

It seems there is a lack of understanding. Everybody told us something different. A guy in customs told us to ship it to the US and on the way instruct the courier service to change destination at Heathrow airport and then ship it to a location in UK. This was complete bullocks. The courier service said to just leave the telescope at customs and forget about it. It would go to the government in the end. The official responsible for weapons and ammunition told us that the government will not leave it alone. They will charge us money for the space the telescope is taking up in the warehouse.

Its a complex world it seems. I'm still trying to ask to give up the telescope and disown it altogether. I'm glad the ordeal is coming to an end...isA

It was an unwise decision to order that telescope. Let this be a warning to anyone who wants to order something from abroad to Egypt.

Reflection()

I've been doing some programming using reflection recently and when I thought about the term I was unable to put together a formal definition, so here it is...

Reflection in computer science is: "Reflection allows code to discover information about the fields, methods and constructors of loaded classes and to dynamically invoke them. It basically entails reaching into the JVM (if in JAVA) and grabbing out information about loaded classes at runtime"

The Revolution of the Google App Engine

As they have done before, Google are revolutionizing the way we deal with the Web. For developers like myself, they have created a whole new scheme of things to come. Google has announced Google App Engine which provides developers with a means of instantaneous web publishing. You can create a website through Python (the first supported language) and using the SDKs provided test it and debug it and then publish it within minutes.
This will revolutionize web dev. I think this is damn innovative stuff...



"Google App Engine lets you run your web applications on Google's infrastructure. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow. With App Engine, there are no servers to maintain: You just upload your application, and it's ready to serve your users.

You can serve your app using a free domain name on the appspot.com domain, or use Google Apps to serve it from your own domain. You can share your application with the world, or limit access to members of your organization."


App Engine is free!!! You get 500MB of storage and enough CPU power and bandwidth for about 5,000,000 page views a month

Simply beautiful...

I tried to get the preview release but it was only being given to the first 10,000 developers to register. I was obviously too late.

The SDK is available for download...so anyone interested go ahead! There is also documentation. But there is still no space to register for publishing on the production environment...

Soon...my friends...soon :D

Backronyms

Never knew there was a word to describe this. An acronym is a abbreviation. A backronym on the other hand is a phrase constructed from a previously existing word or abbreviation.

An example: A Spool in computers is a buffer area used for data transmission between a computer and a peripheral of lower speed. People constructed the phrase Simultaneous Peripheral Operations On-Line based on the believed-to-be acronym Spool. Its the inverse (the reverse direction) of developing an acronym.

I thought this was quite interesting...

Google Alerts

Just came across Google Alerts. This is darn kool. It'll allow me to keep up to date with issues. Check it out...

Radio on The Run

As usual I started driving to work this morning and tuned into our local English radio station. As many time in the past, I SMSed the station telling them I would love to play one of their games where they ask a guy 5 Qs and then ask a girl 5 Qs. Call it sexist, call it competition....whatever :D. I was the first one to be asked the questions. I got 4/5. I got the easiest of all questions wrong. I always get confused about the capital of Canada. I said Ontario. Ontario is the county which contains the capital city, Ottawa. Well I got 4/5 and the girl got 2/5 so I won myself a mobile line and some goodies from the mobile service provider. Hope the number is good. I don't know if I'll be able to go pick them up...we'll see.

In actual fact, they made my drive to work fun. I enjoyed the ride and partially was unaware of the time it took in the crowded streets of Cairo. I then took a wrong turn as I smiled at the girl who got most of the questions wrong....evil me! That wrong turn cost me a lot. I had to take a long detour to get back to work.

Yalla...I had a nice morning so far. Hopefully the day will meet the high expectations ..isA

Vector Graphics Vs. Raster Graphics

Curiosity killed the Cat! Not in my case - I'm looking into something called Vector Graphics.

Vector graphics...AKA geometric modeling or object-oriented graphics. OOG...hehe.
Vector graphics is the use of geometric primitives like points, lines, curves and polygons which are modeled by mathematical equations to represent images.

Vector graphics is the opposite of Raster Graphics. Raster Graphics is representing an image by an array of pixels (also the technique used for rendering photographic images). This mechanism makes images pixelate as you zoom in, as you can see in the picture below.



This pixelation does not happen with vector graphics. Vector graphics files store the lines, shapes and colors that make up an image as mathematical formulas. A vector graphics program uses the mathematical formulas to construct the screen image by building the best quality image possible, given the screen resolution, from the mathematical data. This is why you see the difference between both techniques in the picture above. Vector graphics render themselves using math equations according to the resolution of the image.

So this is an exceedingly brief look at the two techniques. For a complete and detailed description of the PROs and CONs of each see Wikipedia - Vector Graphics

Stay tuned for more posts...

Some more pix...

Monty Hallin'

Two days ago I saw the movie 21. Its based on a true story. Its a story about five MIT students and how they are recruited by a university professor to count cards in Black Jack. The plot is absolutely predictable but I definitely enjoyed it.

They referred to the Monty Hall Problem in the beginning of the movie. This sent nostalgia spinning up my spine. I never did pay attention in that class on probability, maybe cause the room was always so jam-packed and the professor was sooo irritatingly annoying. Thus, I never did get the hang of it and I think that was my lowest grade in all my years at uni. So I obviously couldn't remember much about the problem except its name.

The Monty Hall Problem is a problem of probability based on a tv show. The host asks you to pick one door out of three knowing that behind two of them is a goat and behind just one of them there is a bran new car. The objective obviously is to pick the door with the car behind it.



Once you pick one of the doors which has a probability of 1/3 to have the car behind it, the host then goes and opens one of the other two doors. It reveals a goat. The host then asks you whether or not you want to change your choice. So you offered to keep to your first choice or to switch to the other closed door.

The simple scenario is that you pick one door and stay with it. The probability in this case is 1/3 that the car is behind it. But actually it would be wiser or mathematically wiser to switch. Why?

The probability of your chosen door is 1/3 which makes the probability that the car is behind one of the other two doors 2/3 (shared across both doors). When the host reveals one of the two other doors, he has made the 2/3 probability rest solely on the closed door of the pair. Therefore your chosen door has a probability of 1/3 (same as before) and the other remaining door has a probability of 2/3. This is why it is wiser to switch.



You can look at it from various angles. You can analyze it using Bayesian analysis or map out all scenarios and see what happens. Another way to look at it is that the probability of choosing a goat in the first place is 2/3. In all cases if you choose a goat in the first place, and switch, you will win the car. This is because the host will reveal the other goat and thus the remaining door has the car behind it. But if you stick to the choice you only have a 1/3 chance of winning the car.

An easier way to look at this is to increase the number of doors to say; a 100. You choose one and the host reveals 98 of the other doors. Will you switch? The probability of choosing a goat first is 99/100 which is 99%. It is almost certain that you choose a goat door. Then the passes along the other 99 doors and opens them all except for one somewhere along the line. A rational decision would be to switch to that door knowing that there is a 99% chance you choose a goat to start with and a 1% chance you choose the car from your first choice. Pretty cool huh?

Its a really cool problem that sparked confusion and debate in the world. The problem and solution were published in the Parade magazine. About 10,000 readers (including several hundred mathematics professors) wrote to the magazine claiming the solution was wrong. People saw the problem of switching as a bran new problem independent of the first choice. In actual fact it is because depending on which door you choose at the beginning the host will reveal one of the other doors which has a goat. So the host's choice is based on your choice. So therefore there is a relationship between which door the host reveals and the door you choose.

My Lumix

Got my new camera two days ago and took it for a Macro Morning Spin!!! Took some pix in my back garden this morning using macro. Here they are...

An Egyptian fly unaware of my presence...



Eaten by a rose...



Mushroom Kings



Love...



Honey suckle....or close



The Brain...



Crown




A fallen rose

Asciimation!!!

This is sooo kool!

You've got to check it out!!!!



Open up the windows command prompt (you'll find it under All Programs > accessories.
Once the black window opens up type in the following line:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

and enjoy :D!!!

Stylish Firefox

This is definitely the best UI enhancement add-on for Firefox I've seen. It's called Stylish. It actually applies styles to the websites of your choice. It replaces the existing styles of websites and puts your own.

The effects of this add-on are amazing! and as usual in the open source world there has been a swarm of commotion and hence you can find ready made styles to install onto the add-on. Here are some snapshots of what can be done.

Gmail in black!



Wikipedia painted dark!



Rainforest Yahoo!!!



There is a site called http://www.blackle.com/
which claims that because of it's black theme it saves energy and is easier on the eyes. Easier on the eyes maybe but Google denies the greenness of black. It says displaying black on flat-panel monitors actually uses more energy.

:D

iframes!!!

Aliens in Egypt!!!

View Larger Map

This funny looking sign was found on Google maps. It shows a weird pattern in the middle of nowhere. Could it be aliens?

hehe...don't think so...Could be some very innovative dumpster truck drivers with a lot of free time :). Its quite interesting. Some of them are holes in the sand and some are tiny hills. There are no traces of vehicles to show how it was made. It could actually be a Google April fools prank. It could have been deliberately inserted into Google maps by Google!!!

Can you think of any other explanations?

Calories Affect Brain Power!!!

"I fast for greater mental and physical efficiency", Plato said.

A study has been published that says:

When the stomach is empty the body produces a hormone called ghrelin. This hormone travels to the hippocampus in the brain and causes new brain cell connections to form. The hippocampus is the memory engine of your brain. when lab animals are injected with extra ghrelin, their learning ability and memory improved.

"Could intentionally keeping your stomach empty (by cutting down your food intake) accelerate learning ability and improve memory? The recent discovery involving ghrelin, taken in conjunction with recent research involving calorie restriction - suggests this may very well be the case"



Wow. Very interesting stuff...

I started looking into the relationship between food and mental power when I finally got fed up of the situation I fall into whenever I eat large meals at work. My efficiency falls to the floor. Not only do I feel slow, tired and exhausted after the large meal, I am unable to concentrate. I become a zombie!

The relationship between our diet and our life is extremely strong. Unfortunately I abuse my diet. I'm working on that...

PS: Definitely more posts on this subject...