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...

The Indian Fibonacci and Rabbit Reproduction

Most of you know of the Fibonacci sequence. Its the magical sequence of numbers that was mentioned in the Da Vinci Code novel. I took it in school and university and never actually knew what it represented.

The original sequence was studied by an Indian mathematician called Virahanka in the 6th century AD. Virahanka was analyzing the length of sequences of long and short syllables in an ancient Indian language. The long syllable was twice as long as the short syllable. The Ith number in the Fibonacci sequence is the number of total combinations that can be composed of those two syllables with length equal to I.

For example:
If the short syllable is S (represents 1 unit of length) and long is L (represents 2 units of length) then for the 3rd number in the sequence the number of combinations of the two syllables that make a total unit length of 3 are:

{ SSS, SL, LS }

If you do this for lengths of 1,2,3,4,5,... you will find that the original Fibonacci sequence is created which is 1,2,3,5,8,13,21,...

Later on Leonardo of Pisa (AKA Fibonacci) studied the sequence of numbers and linked it to reproducing in rabbit populations to produce the sequence we know today which is summarized in the formula: F(n) = F(n−1) + F(n−2). Which is:

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21...

Has anyone seen rabbits reproduce before? I had rabbits in my back yard when I was a kid. We bought two French rabbits (male and female) and two Egyptian rabbits (male and female). In about a year they had become an extended family of 18 and the number went up and up exponentially just like the Fibonacci sequence. Very often we would catch sight of a new born exploring its way outside of the burrow and race back in as we approached.

Yaaaaa...those were the days...

I came across the Fibonacci sequence the other day when I came across a question; It said, "Given that you can take one step or two steps forward from a given step, find the total number of ways of reaching the Nth step?"

Space Tourismo!!!

How amazing would it be to go up into space, experience zero-g and to look back at our home planet and see how small we really are in the context of the universe.

The Russian space program offers trips to the International Space Station. There have been five space tourists who have undertaken this trip before. The next person to go up to the ISS in October of this year is Richard Garriot - a Game desginer. The last one to go up was Charles Simonyi - a software company executive. Richard Garriot is paying 30 million dollars for this. Quite an astonishing amount of money to be paid by one man for one trip.

Is this a waste of money? I personally think there are much more productive ways to spend that kind of money. For starters he could help millions of unfortunate people on Earth instead of riding off on his dream voyage. He could help starving people. He could donate it to disease research. There are many benefits 30 MILLION DOLLARS can bring!!!!

In the end it isn't my decision, I'm just wondering how the last two to go up are people in the software business!!! I want to be next!!!...hehe.

A Sneak Peek

My poor telescope is still being held in customs...:'(. I just hope it gets here in one piece. I guess I'm going to have to introduce it before it actually arrives. Maybe I'll get it piece by piece (Rabena Yostor).

There are of course many different types of telescopes. There are three main types of telescopes; reflectors, refractors and catadioptric. Reflectors use mirrors to reflect the light captured by the aperture. Refractors use lenses to convey the image caught at the aperture to the opening for the eyepiece. Catadioptric telescopes are telescopes that combine together mirrors and lenses. There are many pros and cons of each type of telescopes. I'll talk about these in later posts.

The telescope I ordered is a 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain. This is a catadioptric type of telescope. The 90mm corresponds to the diameter of the aperture of the telescope. This is the most important aspect of a telescope. The larger the aperture, the more light the telescope absorbs and hence the more fainter and further objects it can reveal.

Another important factor is the focal length of the telescope. The longer this is the more power of magnification it provides. The magnification is the first thing people think of when they think of telescopes and they believe this is the metric on which to evaluate a telescope. This is not true.



The magnification of a telescope equals the focal length of the telescope divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. Eyepieces are changeable. Astronomers typically have sets of different eyepieces to attach to the telescope depending on what they want to see. Eyepieces each have a focal length and a field of view. There is no point in trying to get the highest possible magnification, which means getting the eyepiece with the smallest focal length. This is because there is a limit to the amount of magnification a telescope can handle. The limiting factor is our old friend, the aperture. There is only so much detail (i.e. light) that exists in the image caught by the telescope's main mirror or lens (according to the aperture size). There is no point in trying to magnify beyond the detail that the telescope reveals. This will give you a blurred image. Another thing to consider is the field of view of the eyepiece being used. I'll talk more about eyepieces in future posts.

My telescope-to-be (isA) is a catadioptric type. It is a very compact model. You can see it here...



I didn't order the tripod you see in the pic.

This telescope should be able to see, believe it or not, the red spot on Jupiter and the dust ring around Saturn. Of course I'm going to go out to the desert or somewhere with no light or air pollution.




Just hope I get the scope intact soon isA...
When I do I won't stop showing it off :p

The formidable wall we know so well

Very frequently in my line of work do I find myself in front of an obstacle. I find myself confronting a dead-end wall. There is no way around this wall. No solution to allow you to pass. You are stuck. You struggle to get around it, but in vain. You hack away at the wall but everything seems impossible. Then you really break down in spirit. You feel helpless and useless.



Then I always remember standing on the other side of the wall and looking back at the wall and thinking, "It wasn't that hard? It all worked out in the end". I take a deep breath and walk on. Only to confront another wall may be even bigger than the last.

Time and time again you look back upon the wall you just conquered and think, "there is no such thing as impossible".

How many times have I slumped down at the sight of a formidable problem with "no" solutions at all. I've tried and tried different approaches and nothing helps. I get tangled up in the threads of my own thoughts and little by little strangle myself. Then I can not take anymore so I get up and go take a break and suddenly as I'm watching the TV, walking away from my room or doing whatever it is I'm doing to get my mind off the problem at hand, I trip over the solution to the problem. I see something that I hadn't seen prior. I find a fundamental answer to the puzzling problem and later on, yet again, I look back at the wall I just climbed.

Dexter in Space!

We are minutes away from witnessing the launch of the Endeavour space shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. It's quite amazing that some people are unaware of something orbiting the Earth called the international space station...hmmm...interesting...

The shuttle will be taking up an interesting two-armed robot called Dextre. Its a Canadian made robotic arm which will help substitute astronauts going out for space-walks. The shuttle is also taking up a Japanese made science laboratory or a piece of it at least.

This is Dextre below...



Quite fascinating I must say.

The World is Shrinking!

How I wish some times that I was an undergrad student again these days. The world is shrinking!!! There are more and more oppurtunities popping up everyday. All this has become possible by the Internet which youngsters take for granted these days. They never saw what was before the Internet! Since I'm from a slightly older generation; it's like the stone age humans who came across fire!!!! hehe...So the east and west have come closer and with the advancement in technology we see "exciting new opportunities that people are talking about" {The way Bill Gates puts it}.

The reason I was set on this nostalgic path of thought was because I was nominated to be a Google Student Ambassador. Where were these opportunities when I was an undergrad??? Fein???? :D. Google was still on the rise back then and well, more and more multinational companies are interested in draining the innovative brains of our talented youth :). Well that is another line of thought - Countries are loosing their little powerhouse brains to the west. The industry is reaching across the globe and hacking into oilfields of ideas from innovative young youth. :'(

Of course I don't have the time anymore to do something like this. In order for it to be done properly it needs time and commitment. Those are two things I have allocated to other aspects of life...

I'm not sad, just thought I'd share a spur of thought with ya as always...

Why do we stick out our tongue to focus?

The real reason to this, psychologists say, is because there is a significant amount of background processing that goes on in the brain that controls the movement of our tongue. We are of course unaware of this but when a person is trying to concentrate on a mind-intensive task at hand they tend to involuntarily stick out their tongue or fixate their tongue between their teeth or up against the top of the ceiling. This is to relieve the brain of any background processing and to fully focus on the task.



Quite interesting...

Blogging Mind-Bogglers

If you haven't watched this video on youtube then you've missed quite a lot...thats if your interested in virtual reality and gaming. I was sent a link to this video a long time ago but never actually watched it. Yesterday I came across the same video again and it blew my mind away! It is one of the most watched videos on the Internet. Its utterly awesome!

Its by a guy called Johnny Lee from Carnegie Mellon University. He created virtual reality using the Wii controller and sensors. You have to watch this. Towards the end when he views the stadium, its like looking out a real window! Watch now...

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Clap for WikiSky and Google Sky

WOW! Technology is definitely moving faster than we can grasp. The discovery of Microsoft WWT has brought to my attention two other technologies that have beaten Microsoft to the stargazing software arena. The first being Google Sky who has already launched itself with the newer versions of Google Earth. Now not only can you look at Earth and zoom down to street level, but you can turn the gaze up and look at the night's sky. Unbelievable!



Seriously mind-blowing!



Download it now and take a look for yourselves. Another technology I was aware of but caught my eye as I was looking at Google Sky is KML (Keyhole Markup Language). This is an XML-based language which was originally built by Keyhole Inc. - the creators of Google Earth. The KML file specifies a set of features - placemarks, images, polygons, 3D models, textual descriptions - for display in Google Earth, Maps and Mobile or actually any other 3D earth browser (geo-browser) implementing the KML encoding. Pretty neat huh?

This has led to some amazing applications like for example watching the animation of international flights on Google Earth and a scary simulation of water level rising. You can see this @ here!
and watch it in the Google Earth application.

Another stargazing technology I came across is WikiSky @ Wikisky.org. This freaking blew my mind! I've recently gotten into astronomy again after long years of absence. This comes at a wonderful time.



We have come a long way with technology. There are even virtual moon trips coming up! Imagine this...going to the moon in virtual reality. You can read all about this here. This should be coming up in a year. This will allow people to hitch rides on probes to the moon and watch as the lunar robots explore the surface of planets. This will all be in real-time and will allow everyone to participate in space exploration. WOW!

I'm glad though that I ordered my telescope. So far I can see that these two portals into the night sky are just knowledge providers and will in no way replace real astronomy. They will definitely greatly help the astronomy communities around the globe and are welcomed as an amazing innovation. They are truly grand! I can't wait to explore some more!

A Definite BRAVO for Microsoft

I was just notified by a friend of something called "The Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope"

"The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe.





WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft's high-performance Visual Experience Engine™, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience"
source: you can find this @ WWT!

A screenshot of the whole experience...



Check it out on Youtube

It is still not operational. It should be out as an alpha version in several weeks. Can't wait! This comes at a weird time...as I'm actually waiting for my new telescope. WWT revolutionizes astronomy. Should I have thought twice before ordering a telescope...

The Lunar Eclipse From Egypt

Last night was a very interesting night. It seems not many people here in Egypt were aware that the Earth would cast its shadow on its nearest neighbor, the moon. Or may be no one was interested. It started at about 3:30am here in Cairo. It started like this:



This was the first thing I saw as I switched off the movie and looked up. I had been watching a movie as I waited for the eclipse to begin. The shadow appeared on the rim of the silver sphere. It slowly made its way further and further across the bright silver moon.



I struggled to capture decent photos of the eclipse with my primitive automated cybershot. I tried my best and to be honest I was happy with the outcome. My other visual aid was my telescope. I set it up on a tripod on my roof ready to watch the event. I've had this telescope since I was ten years old or something. It was a birthday gift from my father and the night I got it was one hell of a night. I could finally see the moon up close and see the dinosaur-looking or dragon-like craters of the glaring moon. Now, many years later I look up again at the glowing ball in the night's sky.



It's quite ironic that a few days earlier, unaware of the lunar eclipse coming up, I ordered a 90mm Mak-Cass telescope. Interesting that my interest in astronomy re-emerges just before this event. Another ironic thing is on the 21st of February 41 years ago the Apollo 1 was planned to launch but there were unfortunate events in one of the test runs leading to the death of some of the astronauts due to fatal errors in the designs of the Apollo command module.

So there I was freezing in the cold pre-dawn air. My hands were frozen blocks of ice and every time I looked into the eyepiece of my telescope the chilly metal would scorch my skin cold.





The star you see in the above image is Saturn. There is another bright star above the eclipsed moon that you cant see in the picture. This is Regulus (a bright star of the Leo constellation). Hopefully with the telescope I ordered, I'll be able to meet Saturn and Jupiter up close and personal :D.



The picture above is the last picture I took. It isn't clear at all but you can see that the moon has disappeared behind the shadow cloak of the earth all together.

The picture just below is the telescope I used to view the amazing experience.



It's a 20x50 refractor telescope which isn't too bad. You can see the moon fairly clearly. I still plan on buying a deep space Imager which is something you put on the eyepiece of the telescope and connect to a USB port in a computer. It allows you to take images using your telescope. I just hope my telescope gets here and the 6.3mm eyepiece I ordered along with it.

As you can see the moon turned dark orange as the full eclipse came into play. I was forced inside by the cold and so had to look up from my window. The full lunar eclipse was approximately at 5am. I had work early that day so I was forced to shut down my operations and get some rest.

It was definitely an interesting experience. It was so grand. So much bigger than us. I kept imaging the whole event up close, seeing the massive earth moving across the rays of the sun and cutting off light from the lunar disc. The disc darkened with the umbra of the shadow and the people on earth, so small and insignificant in the context of such a large-scale show, looked up in absolute awe.

Could it be due to Multitasking?

"To do two things at once is to do neither". This was said by a Roman slave, first century BC.

I read an interesting article about how multitasking is making us dumber and drives us insane. I must say I really hate living two paths. In this I mean doing masters and working at the same time. It takes its toll on you in the end. I wish I could focus fully on one thing. Each task constantly threatens and alleviates the focus on the others leading to doing nothing good in the end.

Anywayz, read the article if your interested:
CLICK HERE!

AaaaHhhh...Vacations

I'm back from a long awaited vacation in the UK. Now it has disintegrated into history and memories. Only one emotion describes the state I'm in now...Depressed :(. It was an awesome two weeks. Now I'm back to work and back to my routine life.

Then again could have been worse. EL humdulilah 3ala kol shai2.
It was a fun two weeks.

Build Up vs. Deep In it and Random Thoughts

How often is the build up to something much better than the actual event that takes place after the anxious wait. In many cases it is. I live on dreams, hopes, feelings that just maybe something may happen. Even though all the odds point the other way, I insist on delving into the daydreams of things that never can be. It is true that nothing is impossible. But we can tell when things are impossible. Impossible is possible. Somethings were never meant to be. If I was to say, "I'm going to be the first Egyptian in Space!". Could that be true, remotely true, even possible? You tell me! I would bet it would never happen. But then my brain could go into daydreaming hyper-drive and imagine out a whole concise, logical and detailed scenario of my dreams become reality. Then I start to analyze the situation I'm in now and try to find a way to get me closer to the dream.

The truth maybe that I have a war to win. If I win that war I may be, just may be somewhat closer to what I want to have and be. Time can only reveal so much. We never see too far into the future. We can expect but life is certainly mysterious in its ways of showing us things. I have made up my mind as to what one of my new years resolutions will be. The only discouraging aspect of this is that they have been the same year-out and year-in. Its the same old story. I fight and fight for something and then slip back down the mountain side. I get hyped up and do marvels and not to soon after I see them diminish and drown in my own soul. The next year dawns and yet again I dream of winning. I can only wonder now if what I want will ever be solidified into reality of life. It can be done and I know it. I can do it but am I up to the pain and sacrifice that scatters the reached path to this goal.

Does truth dictate that somethings were never meant to be? Are the feelings of being doomed in a dungeon-state make our minds switch on the dreaming daze. I find myself these days delving into it all to often. I sit there or lie there living the impossible as if it was very much possible

Maybe I'm going through this thought now as I'm on vacation in a very different world to the home I call home these days. I'm on holiday in a place that I consider my second home. It could have easily been my first home but due to some fortunate or unfortunate events has become second. I see them as fortunate events that have twisted and turned my fate. I see things here that I long for. I see things here that are close to who I am in blood and flesh. I see common things. I see dead things!! hehe. In the end I am who I am. I think im going to have another post about this.

Back to the prevailing thought; I can never forget the adrenaline rush and excitement bubbling in my blood before a trip. I love it! I always remember later being on the actual trip and thinking: Here it is! Its happening. Is this what I expected! Is it as good as the build up before it. In some cases it is and in some cases it flashes before your eyes as your enjoying the trip and soon its only a memory. A memory you look back on and long to change things and long for more and long for those days to come back.

I stand there knowing that I could have been in a much better situation if I had sacrificed a little along the path to that situation. You know there is a prevailing chance that what you want will never come but you insist and insist and your brain resorts to stargazing to prevent the progress of insanity. It gives me peace of mind.

I don't really know what I wanted to say in this post. Its just one of those random posts that are a spill out of a core dump :D. I need to every once in a while dump my brain into writing. Feels useless. It feels aimless, target-less and goal-less but it does feel a bit good. Well maybe not as good as Im coming to the end of this post. Well I feel neutral now. I feel I will try and fight harder for the war I must win.
What war is that? you ask. The answer lies in a quote I heard a long time ago:

"The greatest battles in life are fought within the inner most chambers of the human soul".

It sounded something like that. I cant remember it verbatim but it holds basically the same meaning. The war is something and everything. Life is a struggle to become who your subconscious and conscious want to be.

Social Networking

I think social networking has to be one of the best inventions this century. It is in my opinion the true link between humans and society and the cyber-world of the Internet. Too bad I didn't think of an idea like that! Actually many thought of it. There is a number of them out there: Hi5, Orkud, Facebook, MySpace...etc. Hi5 twisted dirty and somehow did not attract our attention as much as Facebook and MySpace did.



I've always been dumbfounded by the links between the virtual world of the Web and the real world and how the former imitates the latter and how real-life relationships can be built up by the virtual world. I used to think, if I had the chance to date a girl I met off the Web - I wouldn't do it because it would feel unnatural. It would feel eerie and not so normal. Nowadays I think it is kind of normal because it does happen in real-life in the end.

So the winner is social networking. People send out their wedding invitations on Facebook. Astonishing I must say. The missing link between real life and the virtual life.

Talking To Cyberspace

Why do you talk to the cyberspace?

I for one do it because I like to write! It removes the burden of ideas from upon my back. Its a way of documenting your thought. Its a way of crying out without facing the shyness of distress before other people...hehe. Its a way of conveying your ideas and hoping that someone out there will trip over your blog and share the same ideas or feelings or find your blog interesting!! We do it because we are human and we like to talk and express ourselves. We do it to "fadfad" (an Arabic term), to let our heart bleed out its secrets, to speak to nothing because nothing just absorbs and does not answer back. Nothingness just listens. It may be the best listener of all.



When I find myself talking to void. I'm not really talking to void. I'm talking to God. I speak out to him and ask for his forgiveness or help. inshAllah.

So I write to be heard by no one at all or by someone who will ping me back and put a smile on my face OR make me think more and "analyze this" which will lead to more and more posts and to an exponential search space...lol. Well this hasn't happened yet so lets hope for the best!

Taxation Without Representation

TWR is a common scenario seen in third-world countries. "Taxation Without Representation" is the renowned slogan that echoed throughout the grieving thirteen colonies of pre-"Police The World" America. It came about as the American colonies had to pay taxes to the occupying British Empire. In spite of these taxes Americans had no representation in the British parliament and hence did not have any rights associated with these taxes. The British tried to suppress this outrage by allowing "virtual" representatives of the American people to attend parliament. This of course caused more commotion as these representatives knew nothing about America.



As we look at this glimpse of Earth's history, we cant help but see this happening all over again. It is happening ever so insidiously hidden away in another context; taking taxation and never seeing the return of this money to the streets. All we can see are the "virtual" representatives. The mouths are filled, minds kept busy with the pettiest of life and the lips are stitched. You cant keep burying and burying the earth you stand on.

Beneath A Century of Ks...Gears of War

All I can hope for now is to dip below the century of Ks. Its a war I must win InshAllah. Now a battle, always a battle. Later another shall rise. Overall the war must be won. I try, try hard but in vein it seems.

I'm pretty close now to the century. I may cross the line this coming week. I may, just may before I travel next week. It is the traveling that started this battle. It is also usually around this time each year that I get the urge to wage the war again. I click on my gears of war and mount the reigns onto my jarred mind. Almost all battles I have won have rebound. I hold my ground but I get tired and slowly slip back.



It can be done. Nothing is impossible. Possible is not impossible. It is the thought that I will see people I have not seen for a long time that fuels this battle. Onslaught after onslaught, I try. I try and try but the urge flows back. I push harder and harder but the wall caves in.

All I can do is try. Thats all I can do is try my best. Somewhere along the line with the busy days of life I will break through the ironclad wall. I shall crush it once and for all and live a new life. One free from this burden I hold up upon my shoulders. A new life it shall be.

Raining Apples!!!

When I think about friends, I think about apples.



Its the time of year of eid al-Adha, the triad of christmas days (eve, day and boxing day), the Hajj and the beginning of the mid-year vacation. Its a time of festivities and relaxation after long hard work in academia. Its a time when it rains apples!

I have soo many people I have to meet! Im actually torn between all of them. They say it's a blessing to have friends, many of them. I believe this true but sometimes I'm cursed by the way I'm stretch between all of them and in the end I'm left with a sheared brain and soul panting for breath.

Don't get me wrong, it is an absolutely wonderful thing to have friends. Without them you couldn't lead a decent life. The pros of having many friends definitely out-weights the cons. There is no debate here.

Lets get back to the falling apples. So as I mentioned this is a time when people come back to their mother-land (although my mother-land is not where I currently stand) for the wonders of such a blessed time of year.

Unfortunately I cant help but say that this time has been accompanied by silent sadness with the death of soo many loved ones. God bless their soles (inshAllah).

So I have five friends here in Egypt now. Most of them I have seen and some I haven't had the time to. I hope I see all of them before they leave...

I see friends as apples, some sweet and some sour. The sour you know to learn about yourself and the sweet you know to help and be helped inside and out. Friends are a blessing.

I hope I catch all the apples before they go away.