Author: Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.

Tunisian Blogger Meetup on April 24th

Finally, the date, time and place for the first Tunisian Blogger Meetup is set.

It’s going to be on Sunday, April 24th at 7PM in Biwa (Les Berges du Lac).

For more details and to confirm you’ll be attending, go to the Tunisian Blogger Meetup event page.

I hope everyone blogging from Tunisia can make it. I can’t wait to meet you all.

And hey, please spread the word and promote the meetup on your blogs too so we can get as many people as possible there.

Global Economics in 2 Cows

You have 2 cows:

Socialism: The government takes them both and gives you some of their milk.

Fascism: The government takes them both and sells you the milk.

Nazism: The government takes them both and shoots you.

Bureucracy: The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other then spills the milk.

Capitalism: You sell one cow, use the money to buy a bull and breed the remaining cow with the bull, increasing your assets.

Arab Corporation: You sell one cow, then force the other cow to produce 4 times as much milk as usual, then find it shocking when the cow collapses.

Japanese Corporation: You redesign the cows so that they are 10 times smaller, and yet produce 10 times more milk, then design a cartoon character called

Used Book Shops

I’ve always been one big book worm. Ever since my childhood I’d go through one book after the other. I guess it’s because of my love for stories and letting my imagination run wild in recreating them and the worlds they happen in.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across a used book shop in Colisée Saula in Manar 2, and ever since then I’ve been hooked and actively looking for other ones like it.

I’ve come across another interesting one in Rue d’Angleterre where I bought Siddharta by Hermann Hesse, the book I’m currently reading.

It’s quite hard to come by good new English books in Tunisia, just a handful at Al Kitab bookshop, El Moez bookshop and the book fair. So it’s cool that a person can find some interesting stuff scattered around in these used book shops.

There’s also another side to used book shops that I like; the fact that all these books were read by someone else before you, taken care of and saved, and that they’re somehow being passed on to you.
It reminds me of this interesting site I found a while ago called BookCrossing. Book Crossing is the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.

I truly think used book shops are as important as libraries and new book shops as they have some books you couldn’t find elsewhere and make book prices more accesible to everyone.

links for 2005-04-13

Subzero Blue is Webby Worthy

As a result of being a finalist for the Bloggie Awards this year, Subzero Blue was entered for the 9th Webby Awards, the most prestigious website awards.

The Webby Awards got over 4,000 entries this year, and this what they say:

As a result of the exceptional quality of submissions this year, for the first time ever, the 9th Annual Webby Awards is recognizing sites, and the teams behind them, that demonstrate a standard of excellence. Although these sites were not chosen as Nominees, being selected as Webby Worthy is a significant achievement.

Of the more than 4,000 entries submitted to the 9th Annual Webby Awards, fewer than 20% were deemed Webby Worthy. This honor signifies an outstanding caliber of work.

And guess what?
Subzero Blue was chosen by the Webby Awards as one of the Webby Worthy sites. WOOOW!
This really is an honor. The fact that this blog was chosen as Webby Worthy from all the great sites and blogs that were submitted is just amazing.

Big thanks to all the readers of this blog. You guys are truly the greatest 🙂

Amr Diab To Run for Egyptian Parliament

The Egyptian Arnie…

Egyptian pop-star Amr Diab is steering away from his profession and will run for elections in the Egyptian Parliament, which will take place immediately after the Presidential elections. The singer has already began his new political campaign by going back to his hometown to try and win over the support of his people.

According to the London based Elaph, Amr will make the announcement of his election publicly in the upcoming few days. It is unpredictable if the singer will be able to defeat former parliament members, but he will depend on his popularity to win votes and is concentrating on the young generation.

[Source: Al Bawaba]
[Via: Mindbleed]

Well if Reagan made it to President and Arnie made it to governor, why can’t Amr become a member of the Egyptian parliament?

He could even drop in a song every now and then to make it less boring.

links for 2005-04-11