Year: 2004

Osama Bin Laden’s Endorsement

Osama bin Laden, reading a statement to the American people in a new videotape aired Friday, directly admitted for the first time that he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks and said “the best way to avoid another Manhattan” was to stop threatening Muslims’ security…

He accused President Bush of “misleading” the American people since the 2001 suicide airline hijackings that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

“Your security is not in the hands of (Democratic candidate John) Kerry or Bush or al-Qaida. Your security is in your own hands,” bin Laden said.

I expected something would popup a few days before the election to sway the US voters to one side or the other.

It would either be something from Al Qaeda threatening the US and swaying the votes towards Bush or lots of shit erupting in Iraq swaying them towards Kerry.

It seems Al Qaeda chose to endorse Bush, confirming the old post on Why Al-Qaeda wants President Bush to be re-elected.

Anyway, according to recent polls, it doesn’t seem to have made too big of an effect. But who believes polls.

We’ll only know when the votes are in tomorrow and the numbers start rolling out.

Ten Questions for Osama Bin Laden

So, bin Laden supposedly admits to 9/11 (here).

I guess people are starting to ask too many questions about the events of that day – what better way to throw folks off the scent than a ‘confession from the accused’.

Okay, here’s a few questions I’d like ‘criminal mastermind’ bin Laden to answer:

Answers on a postcard please.

[Via: Jalan-Jalan]

Super Powers

If you were offered to choose one and only one super power, what would you choose and why?

This is a thought that has crossed my mind more than once since my childhood, and I guess everytime I’d have a new answer depending on the new cool superhero comic or cartoon I was into.

But now, when I think of it, the 2 most tempting super powers for me are flying and being invisible. And having to choose only one, I’d choose Invisibility.
Of course not just normal invisibility, no I’d also have to be able to walk through walls and stuff.

The ability to become invisible is so much more powerful than most people would think. It means you’d be able to go wherever you want, do whatever you want, see whatever you want without anyone knowing.

It means freedom beyond any degree of freedom a normal human being could enjoy.

It means so much power without anybody knowing where it’s coming from.

For example, If I could become invisible, I’d pick myself up right now, walk into the airport, go aboard a flight to the US, go to NASA, take a space shuttle for a little spin around earth, get back in time to change the results of the US elections then come home to blog about it 😉

Now, that’s cool…

Of course, after a while, I’d grow a bit bored of it, and so I would start thinking of maybe helping people using my super natural gift 😛

Prognostication

“You know, back in 2000 a Republican friend of mine warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we’d lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I’ll be damned if all those things didn’t come true.”

— James Carville

[Via: Generik, eclecticism]

The 5 Pitfalls of Estimating a Software Project

I just came across these, and thought they were too important to just put on the linklog. They deserve to be the center of attention.

So here they are, the 5 pitfalls of estimating a software project with my comments:

1) Allowing non-technical staffers to give estimates.
Aaaarrrgghhh!! That so gets on my nerves when someone non-technical just goes ahead and gives a baseless estimation.

2) Being afraid to look in the mirror.
Not evaluating past projects and finding out what went wrong in them is one of the biggest mistakes anyone can do. It’s like doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a better outcome.

3) Underestimating design time and debugging time.
This is another major problem. People just love to assume they’re perfect and that they can just skip design and just jump directly into development and then produce something that doesn’t even need testing. Simply stupid.

4) Inadequate/unclear requirements.
Don’t get me going on that one.

5) Taking too large a bite from the apple.
Giving estimations without breaking the tasks down to bits and pieces is just asking for trouble. The complexity of software lies in it’s smallest details not in the big picture.

[Via: Christopher Hawkins]

The Devil Inside

It’s that little voice in the back of your mind telling you:

– It’s ok, no one’s looking, just do it!
– Oh come on, just this once isn’t going to mean anything!
– Just one last time, come on!
– You know you want to, so what’s the point in torturing yourself?!
– Go ahead, just rip his head off, no one will notice!
– Tell him to go **** himself!
– It’s ok, it’s a simple tiny white lie, nobody’s gonna get hurt.
– No, don’t help him! Nobody would help you if you were in his place.
– Leave that good deed till later, there must be something interesting to see on TV. That documentary on Pig fat isn’t that boring after all.
– Look at what they’re doing, don’t they just deserve to die. Kill them, kill them!
– There goes another punk crossing the street without looking. Hit him, hit him!
– Hey, nobody’s looking. You can look now 😉
– Yummy…
– Oh if you just weren’t (fill blank), you could (fill corresponding blank).
– Whether it’s right or wrong depends on how you look at it.
– The concept of good and evil is a man-created illusion.
– Forget about body fat, that food is too good to waste.

And the list goes on…
Each and everyone of us has his own personal devil.
So, what else does your personal devil tell you?

The Jewish Problem

“I don’t believe there is anti-Semitism in Europe. There is a reaction against the policy of Sharon and Bush. I think it’s artificial to think there is a new anti-Semitism. It’s an excuse. It’s a way to avoid self-criticism. Rather than ask themselves what is wrong with the policy of Israel, Jews say the Europeans are against us because of the new anti-Semitism. Because they don’t love us. And even Theodorakis says we are at the root of evil. This is a sick reaction.”

Theodorakis
Greek poet and song-writer

[More: The Jewish problem, according to Theodorakis]

Blocked Road to Kabul

The joint Qatari-Jordanian series “Road To Kabul” that tells the story of Taliban ruled Afghanistan through a love story between an Afghan girl and a Palestinian boy has been taken off the MBC schedule.

Qatar Television, the producer of the series, asked all channels not to air the series, but MBC went on anyway and aired it, but they had to pull the plug on it later because QTV refused to give them the rest of the series’ episodes.

The producers, directors, writers, and actors have received death threats from the Mujahedin Brigades of Iraq and Syria.
But the real reason why the producer suddenly changed mind is still unknown.

It’s a shame that it’s being blocked. I watched the few episodes that MBC aired and quite liked it. It was telling the story of Afghanistan as it really was.

Maybe that’s the reason it’s being stopped after all. The truth isn’t always what they want it to be.

Worship of God

“O my Lord, if I worship You from fear of Hell,
burn me in Hell,
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise,
exclude me thence,
but if I worship You for Your own sake,
then withhold not from me Your Eternal Beauty…”

— Rabi’ah al’Adawiya,
Muslim & Sufi mystic poet born in Basra, Iraq
(717 – 801 CE)

This is just so beautiful…

[Via: Macvaysia, Je Blog]