Radio Jawhara FM, Tunisia
Year: 2006
Fourth Marriage Anniversary
On this day exactly four years ago, Eman and I got married… Yep, today is our fourth marriage anniversary… Four years of bliss and happiness…
We’ve come a long way over the past four years, we’ve gone through many events, we’ve accomplished many things; even though time has flown by and it still feels like we got married yesterday.
This year’s anniversary is extra special because we were given a very precious gift from God, our son Adam, and now we’ve moved on from “couple” to “small family”, and it feels amazing.
To my dear wife: I can’t imagine myself spending my life any other way, nor with any other person than with you. I love you more than words can tell.
Thank you for making my life as beautiful and complete as you have. I hope God helps me to make you the happiest always.
BMW’s First Hydrogen Cars In 2007
More cleaner energy efforts, this time from BMW…
German automaker BMW said that it would begin distributing the world’s first hydrogen-burning cars to selected users in the U.S. and Europe next year.
The cars are 7-Series sedans powered by 12-cylinder internal-combustion engines capable of burning gasoline or liquefied hydrogen.
BMW, which has been working on hydrogen fuel technology since 1978, will build and distribute about 100 of the vehicles for a variety of uses.
Users, who would not be charged for the cars, could include politicians, celebrities, drivers in corporate fleets and members of the public. Some would receive the cars for prolonged periods, others for short test drives.
General Motors Corp. and other big carmakers are working on fuel-cell vehicles that would use hydrogen in an electrochemical process to produce electricity to power a motor.
Ford Motor Co. and Japanese affiliate Mazda Motor Corp. also are working to develop internal-combustion engines that run on hydrogen.
[Source: LA Times]
I wonder if I’ll qualify to get one of those cars to test and play around with…
I mean wouldn’t they need some real world information from at least one person from the Africa and Middle East region, someone like me for example?
Amazon Unbox: Video Download Service
Amazon.com have finally released their online video download service by the name of Amazon Unbox.
Amazon Unbox will offer content from six major Hollywood studios, including 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros., as well as TV networks such as CBS and Fox and cable channels like Comedy Central and E! Entertainment.
It’s obvious Amazon.com rushed this service out quickly this week in an attempt to beat Apple to the market by a few days.
I haven’t had the chance to try it out yet, but it doesn’t look that promising from what I’ve read on Techdirt.
Apparently it brings nothing new to the market, simply another clone of the existing services with the same problems and downsides.
It only works on Windows; it has unflexible portability, unfair copy protection and limited usage; and the prices are relatively high.
So basically it looks like this service brings nothing new to the already dull video download market.
Something the video download business should have learned from the music download business is that it’s the little details in how you do it, how easy it is to use and how good the price is that counts.
Apple’s offer should be coming out in a few days now, and everyone’s expecting they’ll do it all in a slightly differently way and revolutionize the business just like they did with iTunes and the music download business.
I’m not as optimistic as everyone else because after all, Apple or not, a lot of it depends on how much the studios are willing to play ball, and it doesn’t look like they’re thinking straight yet. Anyway I’m sure Apple’s offering will come out better than what is available in the market now at least.
Europe Gets Its First Pro-Israel Lobby
Europe gets its AIPAC…
A new organization named “European Friends of Israel” is expected to be inaugurated next week in Brussels with the aim of becoming an AIPAC-type pro-Israel lobby in Europe.
Several pro-Israel European Union parliament members who were recently joined by a number of Jewish businessmen sponsoring their activity have decided to institutionalize their endeavor in order to boost cooperation between pro-Israel parliamentarians throughout the continent and help in improving Israel
Programming Quotations
“Programming can be fun, so can cryptography; however they should not be combined.” — Kreitzberg and Shneiderman
“Computers are good at following instructions, but not at reading your mind.” — Donald Knuth
“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.” — Tom Cargill
“Before software can be reusable it first has to be usable.” — Ralph Johnson
“Programmers are in a race with the Universe to create bigger and better idiot-proof programs, while the Universe is trying to create bigger and better idiots. So far the Universe is winning.” — Anon
“There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third works.” — Alan J. Perlis
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” — H L Mencken
“One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.” — Robert Firth
“I’ve finally learned what “upward compatible” means. It means we get to keep all our old mistakes.” — Dennie van Tassel
More programmlng quotes can be found here.
Common Sounds In A Programming Environment
This is a list of the most common sounds you’ll hear from a bunch of developers in a programming environment with a little explanation of each sound.
– “Aaaaaah!”: Someone finally found the dumb reason why something was acting weird.
– “Hmmmm”: A new thing to solve, a new programming challenge. Good.
– “Grrrrrrr!”: A new bug has just been reported by Mr. Stick-up-his-ass QA guy.
– “Huh??!” or “What the …!!!”: Something weird/unexpected just happened. No need to be alarmed yet.
– “Bang!” (on keyboard or desk) or sudden swearing: PC crashed before the developer got to save his work, or something of that caliber.
– “Zzzzzzz”: Someone just fell asleep on his keyboard.
– “Oops!”: Nothing big, a minor manipulation error, something small deleted or the like.
– “Oh Shit!”: Quite a big error, but something that will eventually pass, most of the times.
– Sudden silence (coupled with a slightly detectable shaking of the hands and small streams of cold sweat): Really big screwup, time to panic and start looking for a job.
– Machine gun sound: Run! One of the developers’ stress level most probably maxed out, and he’s on a de-stress killing spree.
These are the sounds that came to mind while writing this, I’m sure there are others I forgot to mention, if you remember any other ones, you’re welcome to add them in the comments section.
A Week Of Fatherhood
It’s been a week since my baby son was born, and I’ve pretty much taken a break from everything in this world but him, which explains the lack of blog entries recently.
First of all, I’d like to thank everybody who took the time to either leave a comment on the blog, call, email or chat on IM to congratulate Eman and me on the birth of our baby boy. We both truly appreciate your wishes and thank you greatly.
The mother and son are doing really good, thank God. As for me I’m great, I’m still as excited and ecstatic about this as I was on day one, if not more.
And even though I guess the reality that I’m now a dad hasn’t entirely settled in, I do have a strong sense of how much our lives have changed and will change because of this.
Maybe the most obvious and immediate one of these changes is the fact that we no longer sleep at night. It seems our little Adam is a night person, he spends all day asleep, and wakes up at night with a bunch of plans for us.
The first days after the birth were basically non-stop continuous sleepless marathons for us, until we started using every second of sleep time he gave us during the day time, so yeah, he’s laying out the rules already.
An amazing fact though is how I could just sit there for countless hours just watching him, more like admiring him, adoring him, worshipping him; I can never quite get enough. And when I’m out for even a short while, I miss seeing him and being next to him, and I rush home as soon as I possibly can.
A number of my friends are still under shock and can’t believe that I’m a father, in fact they can’t even imagine it, I can’t say I don’t understand them, but well I’ll be doing everything to be the greatest dad ever and to give this kid the best the world has to offer.
I’ve received some requests for photos of the baby, and they will be coming soon, but no way before Suri Cruise goes public; In our case, at least, there is proof that Adam exists from the photo in the previous post.
Adam’s blog is under construction too, it’s where we’ll mostly be posting news, photos and stuff about him as he grows up.
So no worries to those who were afraid this blog would become all about the baby, even though some special events will eventually spill over onto here from time to time.
So from today, even though my baby boy and spending time with him is always my first priority, we should be going back to regular programming over here. Stay tuned.
I’m A Father…
Last night I witnessed a miracle…
The miracle of life…
And what a miracle it was…
Last night, Monday 28/08/2006 at exactly 9:35PM, in Clinique Avicenne – El Manar, my lovely amazing wife gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby boy…
The birth experience was so incredibly overwhelming for both of us; how we both felt when the baby was born and we got to see him for the very first time is a feeling that no words can describe and no other thing in life can duplicate; a feeling that can only be shared by people who have gone through the same experience…
It’s just out of this world…
The name we chose for our baby boy is “Adam”…
Why this name in particular? For many reasons, among them the fact that it’s one of the very few names that exist in almost every language and are pretty much pronounced the same wherever you go; it’s also a reference to “Adam”, the first man God created, which we found very suiting for our first child; it’s also mainly because we both loved the name and because it fitted the baby so well…
How do I feel?
I’m overwhelmed, flying, floating above the clouds, happy, overjoyed, proud, overprotective, confused, vulnerable, afraid, responsible, confident, strong, and a list of mixed incredible feelings that I’m still sorting out in my head, but above all I feel touched and changed, I know I’ll never be the same person again.
My priorities in life shifted the instant I laid eyes on my baby son; nothing in this world is dearer to my heart or more important than him and my little family…
The love I have for this baby and for his mother could fill up the heavens above…
I’m a father…
And if there is one thing that I am absolutely sure of is that I’ll be doing the possible and the impossible to be the best father ever for my baby son…
Five Quotes
A quick little meme I found via Kottke, on Rivers Are Damp:
Go here and look through random quotes until you find five that you think reflect who you are or what you believe.
Here are the five I found:
– “The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” (Walter Bagehot (1826 – 1877))
– “Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.” (Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982), Valis)
– “It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” (Agnes Repplier (1855 – 1950))
– “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” (Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790))
– “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” (Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862))