The following is the list of the songs I listened to most this month, not necessarily ones that were released this month though:
Author: Mohamed Marwen Meddah
Mohamed Marwen Meddah is a Tunisian-Canadian, web aficionado, software engineering leader, blogger, and amateur photographer.
Microsoft Surface Computing
Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will be taking the wraps off “Milan”, a project five years in the making, and the first of what the company is calling a “surface computer”.
The Microsoft Surface tabletop PC, for which the company has created both the hardware and software, turns an ordinary tabletop into a dynamic surface that provides interaction with all forms of digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects.
The surface computer will be able to recognize physical objects and allow hands-on, direct control of content such as photos, music and maps.
Although these computers will be available later this year, they’ll be unaffordable for most people; The expensive components required to allow multiple users to touch the device simultaneously give it a price tag approaching $10,000.
So for the time being, the new product is aimed directly at hotels, retail establishments, restaurants and public entertainment venues.
The demos I saw online of this just blew my mind, and the possibilities for applications that can run on this type of computers are really interesting and cool. I hope that it’ll become affordable for domestic use in the near future, because I for one would love to have one sitting in my living room.
For more:
Anti-Smoking Awareness Campaign Launched In Tunisia
On the occasion of the International Day against Smoking on May 31, 2007 , Tunisia has launched a campaign to fight smoking. The slogan adopted this year is
Firefox Takes 25% of Browser Market
According to the latest statistics released by w3counter.com, Firefox
Major World Religions Ranked by Number of Adherents
The following is the list of the world’s major religions ranked by the number of believers adherent to them:
1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.3 billion
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism: 900 million
5. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
6. Buddhism: 376 million
7. primal-indigenous: 300 million
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
9. Sikhism: 23 million
10. Juche: 19 million
11. Spiritism: 15 million
12. Judaism: 14 million
13. Baha’i: 7 million
14. Jainism: 4.2 million
15. Shinto: 4 million
16. Cao Dai: 4 million
17. Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
18. Tenrikyo: 2 million
19. Neo-Paganism: 1 million
20. Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
21. Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
22. Scientology: 500 thousand
Why Don’t Tunisians Pay Online?
E-commerce never really took off in Tunisia, and a lot of people I know think that it’ll be a while before it even starts to work. There aren’t that many Tunisian websites that offer possibilities to pay online, and on the other hand not that many Tunisians are willing to use these possibilities if they exist.
I think it is important to try and understand why Tunisians aren’t ready or willing to pay online in order for businesses to search and find solutions to making the internet into another effective sales and services channel.
Some of the factors that could be behind the Tunisian’s unacceptance to use online payment are:
– Fears regarding the security of online payment platforms
– Not being used to paying online, neither locally nor internationally
– Lack of incentives to pay online, in term of access to cheaper prices or wider choice of products
– Lack and complexity of payment options
– Unawareness of the online payment options that exist in the Tunisian market today
I personally think it’s a combination of all of the above.
10 Simple Ways To Not Mess Up Your Life
I found this really interesting list of 10 ways you can avoid messing up your life; the list goes as follows:
1. Stop taking so much notice of how you feel.
2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse.
3. Ease up on the internal life commentary.
4. Take no notice of your inner critic.
5. Give up on feeling guilty.
6. Stop being concerned what the rest of the world says about you.
7. Stop keeping score.
8. Don’t be concerned that your life and career aren’t working out the way you planned.
9. Don’t let others use you to avoid being responsible for their own decisions.
10. Don’t worry about about your personality. You don’t really have one.
Personally, I agree with all the points above and do my best to apply them, although some are harder than others.
I guess a lot of people will find the last point a bit weird, and will be totally against it at first, but when you come to think of it, personality truly is something flexible and undefinable, it changes as we change as people.
For details on each point, read the full post: 10 simple ways to save yourself from messing up your life.
Problems: In The Software Or The User?
I just loved these two cartoons on Gaping Void, they totally reflect the relationship between the user and the software developers, a reality I’ve lived in the development environment ever since I started my professional career.
On one side, you have the users who do everything wrong and then blame the software for their mistakes; and on the other hand you have the developers who blame everything on the user in order to defend their code and software even if it’s full of problems.
The everlasting cycle… Very amusing at times, and very annoying at others…
The Nine Biggest Myths of the Workplace
A list of the nine biggest myths of the workplace by Penelope Trunk:
1. You
The Clash Within
(…) Until the spring of 2004, its parliamentary government was increasingly controlled by right-wing Hindu extremists who condoned and in some cases actively supported violence against minority groups, especially Muslims.
(…)
If we really want to understand the impact of religious nationalism on democratic values, India currently provides a deeply troubling example, and one without which any understanding of the more general phenomenon is dangerously incomplete. It also provides an example of how democracy can survive the assault of religious extremism.
(…)
The real “clash of civilizations” is not between “Islam” and “the West,” but instead within virtually all modern nations
(…)
If we really want to understand the impact of religious nationalism on democratic values, India currently provides a deeply troubling example, and one without which any understanding of the more general phenomenon is dangerously incomplete. It also provides an example of how democracy can survive the assault of religious extremism.
(…)
The real “clash of civilizations” is not between “Islam” and “the West,” but instead within virtually all modern nations