Month: September 2003

As if it never happened (But not really !)

Well today is a new day, and on my way to work, it looked like nothing ever happened, in fact today looks like a perfect day of spring…

Of course, i hear some places still have to be cleaned up and all, and some water has to be dealt with, but all in all, everything is back to normal…

Anyway, even though it didn’t last for too long, but people whose homes or shops are situated in low areas have suffered a lot of loss because of the water coming in and spoiling whatever is in its way.

I just hope that whatever precautions possible are taken so that this tragedy doesn’t happen again, we’re still at the doorstep of winter, and God only knows what other rains lie ahead.

The following is a picture taken yesterday at a residential area:

Black Hole SUN

Doesn’t anyone else think that Scott McNealy (CEO of SUN) & SUN have become so incredibly pathetic ?

It’s like they don’t know what to do anymore, they’re running all over the place like a mad man looking for anything that thay can shine at when it’s so obvious this SUN has burned itself into a black hole.

One day they’re the server people and they’re talking about the N1 initiative, and the other day they’re the software people and they’re pushing Java and branding it, the next day they’re the anti-microsoft people coming out with the ultimate solution for our lives to go on with their linux-based Java Desktop System and crappy StarOffice, the day after they think Microsoft’s strategy is good and they imitate them in a number of ways, and the sad story goes on and on and on.

Everyday i go to tech news websites and see more and more of this sad tragedy, and i can’t help but think: PATHETIC !!!

I just hope someone at SUN wakes up and gets them focused again, so that they can go back to what they once were, not necessarily the “dot in .com” days, but some of the good old days.

Update on the rain

It took me over half an hour to get to work today, and that’s bad considering that i live less than 5 minutes away.

The roads are blocked with water and cars, including the 7 November Rd. which is a main highway, and i only got to make it here by driving on the side of the road.

Anyway, now that i’m here at work, i’m afraid i’ll get stuck here, lol…

Raining Cats & Dogs & Dinosaurs

The weather has been so weird these past days, ever since the first week of September actually, it’s been raining like crazy, and the weather is so autumn-like, which is normal, which is what is so weird about it, lol…

The weather in September over the last years has mainly been an extension to the unbearable heat of the summer, but this year it has turned into a prelude for the winter, which autumn should naturally be, but just not the Tunisian autumn i guess…

Some roads and sidewalks are full of water already, bringing back memories of last winter and the floods that came with it, and i’m already thinking that if things are like this now, what’s gonna happen in winter ?

I guess i’ll start keeping an eye open for deals on boats, who knows, they could come in handy this year 😉

Yearning for Broadband

Man, i’m dying to get a broadband connection, life like this using dial-up is just becoming unbearable, lol…

The problem is that prices are still too expensive over here in Tunisia, and ISPs and the sole Telecom operator are thinking more about businesses than normal everyday home users.

I just think that if they change their strategy a bit and try to encourage people by lowering prices, marketing and educating them more about what they can do with the internet, then they could really be tapping into a market that’s so much bigger than the business market.
Maybe i’m wrong, and they’re right, but what i’m sure about is that broadband connections should at least be within the reach of a home user who wants one and who is willing to pay a logical price for it, not a fortune as is the case now, lol…

SPAM

This is one of the greatest and funniest spam emails ever, i just came across it on a website somewhere:
(Note: the urls have been removed)


Welcome to the site www.CENSORED.com, it’s us again, now we extended our offerings, here is a list:

1. Heroin, in liquid and crystal form.
2. Rocket fuel and Tomohawk rockets (serious enquiries only).
3. Other rockets (Air-to-Air), orders in batches of 10.
4. New shipment of cocaine has arrived, buy 9 grams and get 10th for free.
5. We also offer gay-slaves for sale, we offer only such service on the NET,
you can choose the one you like, then get straight to business.
6. Fake currencies, such as Euros and US dollars, prices would match competition.
7. Also, as always, we offer widest range of child pornography and exclusive lolita galleries, to keep out clients busy.

Everyone is welcome, be it in States or any other place worldwide.

ATTENTION. Clearance offer. Buy 30 grams of heroin, get 5 free.
Prepay your batch of rockets (air-to-air) and recieve a portable rocket lacuncher for free.

www.BLEEP.com

This offer won’t last! Only until 20th of August all our clients will also recieve
a pack of 2 CDs, with best selection of child pornography.

It’s totally unbelievable what you can get in your email inbox these days, lol…

Skype

Was just surfing around when i came across this new software called Skype, it’s still in it’s beta phase but has already been downloaded 240,000 times 😉

It’s a P2P VoIP (Peer-to-Peer Voice over IP) application, which enables online telephony for free between users of this application.
It also incorporates an instant messenger as a supplementary feature.

It’s by the makers of KaZaA, and they keep bragging about the superior voice quality in Skype, so i’m downloading it for a test drive, and if it lives up to it’s expectations, then just maybe i can use it to cut down a bit of the international calls expenses on my telephone bill, lol…

Will review it on here as soon as i finish downloading it and get to try it…

For more info and to download it, go to: http://www.skype.com

Getting Connected

Well this is just a short little post to share this feeling i have right now…

It’s so amazing how we people take things for granted, i mean here we are, everyday getting online, doing whatever we have to do and then disconnecting and going on with our lives, but do we ever take the time to think about what we’re doing ? i mean, that little click on that “Connect” button actually opens a door for us to the world, to a network of people from all over the globe, and for those few moments that we’re online, we’re actually really connected, all of us connected together and in one single space, i think it’s marvellous and mind blowing.

I’m not new to the web, in fact i’m so far from that, i’ve been online for ages, and for someone who works in the domain of creating more and more websites and injecting them into the web, i should be so fed up of the internet, and well sometimes i am, but still the concept is amazing, and no one can deny that.

What’s even greater is that now we’re not restricted to getting connected just from behind our computer screens, we can actually do it from anywhere, on the move, through our mobile phones.

Just think about it for a while, and you’ll see how awesome all this is, even though now it’s just an ordinary little detail of our everyday lives.

It’s stuff like this that keeps me in the business, lol…

Dreamweaver MX 2004

I downloaded a Trial version of Dreamweaver MX 2004 last week, and have been playing around with it whenever i have time to at work, and i must say it’s really great, the best web editing tool just got a lot better.

The best added features i love in it are:
– The cleaner and neater interface. It’s eye candy.
– The Table/Cell information that is shown when you click inside a cell.
– The image editing features that were integrated in it for cropping and resizing and stuff.
– The better CSS support.

Of course it has a number of other great features, and still some other ones i haven’t discovered yet, but these are the ones that came off the top of my head right now.

My advice to anyone, this is the tool to have, the best version as yet.

Another software i’m dying to try is ColdFusion MX 6.1, so will be trying to download it soon.