10th Tunisian Blogger Meetup

So, it seems more people are ok with Sunday than those who aren’t, so the 10th Tunisian Blogger Meetup will be held this Sunday, January 29th at 1PM in Biwa.

The bloggers will be getting together for a nice lunch and for the usual fun.

A special guest who will be attending this meetup is Mrs. Senda Baccar, editor in chief of Tunisian women magazine “Femmes”, that’s published by R

Tunisian Blogger Meetup 10, When?

So, the 10th Tunisian blogger meetup will be this week, but when is not clear yet.

The two dates that have come up are as follows:

– Friday 27th, 7PM at Biwa in Les Berges du Lac
– Sunday 29th, Early afternoon at Biwa in Les Berges du Lac.

Personally, I’m more for having it on Friday. But it seems we have people who can’t come on Friday, just like there are some other people who can’t come on Sunday. So I guess we’ll have to put this up for a little vote.

So, Friday or Sunday?

Peace Of Partnership And Equality

As for you, my friend from Peace Now… You boil with anger at the Palestinians because they spoiled your celebrations and refuse to let you continue living the illusion that the occupation is concluding and that peace rules the land. Peace is a tango that takes two equal partners dancing in unity; it is not a dance of one who drags around his partner at will. And what do you say? “If that’s the way it is, they are not partners.” This time you’re right. In your dance of peace you have no partners, only enemies. For your peace is his occupation; for your success is his loss; for your reconciliation is a closing of the door on reconciliation with the Palestinians.

… [P]eace is still far away, because peace demands honesty, because peace demands equality. You want to force them to lie, you want of them a peace of surrender, you are celebrating a peace of master and slave. Under such conditions there will perhaps be peace-and-quiet, but Peace, no. Not until you open your eyes and your heart. Not until we are ready for a peace of partnership and equality.

Michael Warschawski, An Open Letter to a Friend In Peace Now; October 2000.

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

Flightplan

On Saturday, we watched “Flightplan“, featuring Jodie Foster, Sean Bean and Peter Sarsgaard.

I saw the trailer for the movie a couple of times, and it looked like an ok movie. Anyway, when we were in London, it was playing there, and I didn’t think it was worth paying two cinema tickets for, so I just decided to wait and rent it on DVD.

The movie is a drama/thriller about a bereaved woman and her daughter who are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet the child vanishes and nobody admits she was ever on that plane.
I really liked the idea of the movie and how it was brought to life, making this such a better movie than I expected.

Jodie Foster is a great actor, as we all know, even though I think she’s a bit too dramatic in her roles. She does the same in this movie, but it turns out better.

If you like what the idea of the movie sounds like, then I recommend this movie.

My score for it is: 7/10.

Vote for me at Bloggies 2006

Thanks to all your nominations and to the votes of the Bloggies 2006 panel, Subzero Blue is a finalist for “Best African or Middle Eastern Weblog” for the third year in a row.

Please pass by the Bloggies 2006 site and vote for me, and don’t forget to tell all your friends to vote for me too.

It’s up to you to give Subzero Blue the award this year or not, so I’m counting on you guys.

Thanks a bunch in advance 🙂

Vote for me here: Bloggies 2006.

Arabic iPod to be launched soon

It seems like an Arabic version of Apple’s hugely popular iPod will hit the market soon.

Elias Abou-Rustom, general manager of Arab Business Machine, Apple’s independent marketing company for the Middle East, says that Apple is working on it and that a prototype has already been made available to them.
He predicts it will be launched in the Middle East in the coming months.

I think this is a really good move by Apple. The Middle Eastern market should be a very interesting one for Apple, and I think that up to now they hadn’t realized it’s full potential and didn’t really try hard enough to market and sell their products in the region.
Hopefully this is a move in the right direction and that they will give more importance to the region, and try to market and distribute their products better than just a few small appearances in some expos.

A few months ago, I wrote about how Apple was overstocked on iPods, while some of us in the Middle East wanted to buy some, and were ready to pay the price, but couldn’t find any.

[Via: Moey]
[Source: Gulf News]

Organizing Tunisian Blogger Meetup 10

It’s nearly a month since we had our last Tunisian blogger meetup, so that means that it’s about time for us to have another one, which will actually be our 10th meetup.

So if you have any suggestions for the date, time and place. Please leave a comment here.

I hope we’ll have more new faces in this meetup.

My personal suggestion is to have it on a Friday afternoon after work, so maybe Friday 27th at 7PM, in a nice caf

High Fidelity – Nick Hornby

Last night, I finished reading Nick Hornby’s bestseller “High Fidelity“.

I’ve been wanting to read this book ever since I saw the movie, starring John Cusack and Jack Black, which I really really liked.

I enjoyed the book a lot, and now I see what a great job they did with the movie transforming the book to film. I really like Nick Hornby’s humour and his first-person narrator style of writing.

The book is about a thirtysomething English guy who runs a London record store called “Championship Vinyl”. He’s very serious about music and sells all these rare albums and singles on vinyl. His love life is a mess and he’s having a tough time making the transition into adulthood.
It’s a funny, sweet, light take on life and love.

I somehow relate to the main character, not in his life and his unhappiness, but in some aspects of his thinking and personality.

This is a really fun and cool story, so I recommend you both read the book and watch the movie.

My score for this book: 8/10.

Less Than A Blink To Judge Web Sites

A new study by some Canadian researchers has found that it only takes an internet user one-twentieth of a second, which is less than half the time it takes to blink, to judge a web site aesthetically, a judgment that influences the rest of their experience with the site.

The study was published in the latest issue of the Behavior and Information Technology journal. The author said the findings had powerful implications for the field of Web site design.

“It really is just a physiological response,” Gitte Lindgaard told Reuters on Tuesday. “So Web designers have to make sure they’re not offending users visually.

“If the first impression is negative, you’ll probably drive people off.”

That makes me wonder, how many blinks do you give this blog?
And while we’re at it, what do you think could make it a better experience for you?

[Source: CNet News]

Paradise Now Wins Golden Globe

Paradise Now” won the award for the Best Foreign Language Film category in the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards, that were held on Monday.

The film was directed by Palestinian Hany Abu-Assad from a screenplay he cowrote with Bero Beyer, the film’s Dutch producer, both of whom ascended to the podium to collect the award.

Paradise Now chronicles the 48 hours before two best friends in Nablus are sent on a suicide mission to Israel. The New York Times said it