Nasr TV

NASR TV, the first-ever private TV channel in Tunisia, will start broadcasting soon. In fact, I hear it should start broadcasting as soon as early summer this year.

The new TV station is going to be a general interest channel focusing mostly on entertainment programs and targeting a young audience according to Mr. Nasra, the channel’s Founder.
The channel will broadcast digitally on the Hotbird satellite around the clock, seven days a week.

Arabic will be the main language of the station, yet the use of foreign languages is considered for certain programs, such as tourism documentaries.

As a general interest channel, “Nasr TV” intends to provide viewers with a variety of programs: culture, entertainment, movies and series, game and children’s shows, women programs, sports, etc?

A total investment of 20 million dinars ($17 million) were injected to build state-of-the-art studio sets, located in La Soukra, a Tunis suburb.

Nasr TV’s business plan mainly depends on advertisement earnings/inflows, both local and foreign.

Part of the staff has been hired, and the rest (total of 150 employees) are being selected. Mr. Nasra made it a top priority to hire professionals from the Tunisian market, which I think is a great initiative.

Tucows Acquires BlogRolling.com

So Tucows have acquired BlogRolling.com

I don’t know why I have a bad feeling about this one.
I mean, when Google acquired Blogger, I thought: fantastic ! Blogger will go on to greater things.
But now, I’m not so sure about this one.
Maybe it’s just because I hate the Tucows download site, or because I don’t see any connection or reason why they should do this in the first place.

Well ok, it turns out Tucows have a service called Blogware, and that they bought BlogRolling to provide more value for that service.

Anyway, I don’t give a damn what they do with their Blogware and how they integrate BlogRolling into it. All I care about is that they don’t screw it up for the rest of us.

The full press release is here.

EU imposes sanctions on U.S.

The European Union launches sanctions on the United States for the first time Monday as a dispute over tax breaks for U.S. firms turns into a trade war that could cost American exporters $300 million this year.

[via CNN]

After having the US impose sanctions on several countries time and time again, breaking their economy and putting their people in misery, it’s sort of good for a change to see things turned around this time, although the results won’t be as bad.

Maybe this will show the US administration how bad sanctions are for the people and businesses, not for the leaders. And maybe it will make them reconsider applying sanctions on other countries.
Maybe. But I don’t think so.

Which reminds me of this term the US & UK created: Smart sanctions.
Smart Sanctions my ass !

Oscars 2004

Finally Lord Of The Rings got the awards it deserved. In fact, it nearly got all of them.
This year’s oscars were swept away by Lord Of The Rings, winning all 11 Oscars that it was nominated for. Now, that’s beautiful.
The movie really deserves every single oscar it got, and every single one it didn’t get too.
It’s the movie of the century.

Finding Nemo won for best animated feature film, and of course I agree.
Pixar rule.

Sean Penn who usually is a bad boy standing against the Oscars, went along this year and won the Best Actor Oscar.
Charlize Theron won Best Actress Oscar for her role in Monster.

Sofia Coppola won best screenplay for Lost In Translation. A movie i’m dying to see.

And well for the full list of winners, go here.

Greater Middle East

Recently we’re hearing more and more about something called The Greater Middle East.
It’s a new term that the Bush administration has created for a region that extends beyond the known geographical boundaries of the Middle East. It goes from Morocco in the west to Pakistan in the east.

They say that it’s a plan to promote democracy in the “Greater Middle East” that will adapt a model like the one used to press for freedoms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

It’ll supposedly come in the form of a package of incentives that will be given to countries of the region in return for concrete steps towards political reform, improving the record on human rights, women

AquaCool

So, my wife’s blog has a new cooler design.

Yes, you read right. My wife has a blog too, and it’s been on my blogroll for quite some time, without anyone knowing it’s my wife’s blog.

Well, almost no one.
Jalan-Jalan found out using his sherlock holmes hat and skills, and I told Houssein about it when we met in Tunis last year.

Why was it kept secret ?
It wasn’t, we just didn’t mention the relation between our blogs directly.

So, interested in some strongly voiced opinions ?
If yes, then AquaCool is the blog for you.

Helping Your Visitors

Just found a really interesting article on a list apart on how to help your site’s visitors.

For this to be possible you have to recognize and achieve a number of things.

1. Recognize that websites are hard to navigate.
2. Understand what it is your visitors are looking for.
3. Accept that visitors scan your headings and links.
4. Be relevant in the words and phrases you use.

I definitely agree. Site makers should put theirselves in the visitors shoes more often when they’re designing a website, and try to make it as easy as possible for users to find their way around and know how to use it.

Read the whole thing here.

The World’s Richest People

So, Forbes has released this year’s list of the World’s richest people.

Bill Gates still tops the list of course.

J.K. Rowling from Harry Potter fame and the Google co-founders have newly entered the list too.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is at 4th place.

And I’m nowhere to be found on the list, lol…
Maybe next year 😛 (In my dreams)

Check out the full list of the World’s Richest People.

Exposure vs. Freedom of Expression

Recently I’ve been thinking about how much freedom I can enjoy while writing on my blog.
The whole idea of a blog is to have freedom of expression and just talk about whatever you feel like talking about.

But still, sometimes I have so much to talk about, and I just can’t use my blog for it anymore.
Why ? because my blog and I are more exposed now.
It’s no longer that blog sitting around in the blogosphere with a few unknown people stumbling upon it every now and then. People from my everyday life, my family, my work know it and read it daily now.
And so, I have to choose what to talk about, use the right words and try not to harm myself or hurt any of the people reading it.

It’s weird, I know. But that’s the way freedom becomes when it’s matched with exposure.
I have to put certain limits on myself and on what I write. It sucks, but it’s necessary.