Phi Infinity

Migrating my resume to LaTeX

2011-12-24T00:40:00.001+02:00

Finally i have migrated my resume to LaTeX. It's been around 2 years that i intended to do so, but every time i try i convince myself to learn LaTeX first then write the resume. Also quick editing in MS Word is a massive temptation vs learning LaTeX. But today i decided to do the move.

The best way to start (which worked for me well), is to look up for some premade latex templates and get the parts that you like from them. Ofcourse that's after reading a quick tutorial on the language itself, but don't get too deep into that.

I collected some good templates, played with them and modified them to my needs, and gradually reached a decent template for myself. It still needs more enhancements and modifications but looks similar to the current resume version produced by MS Word.

The best thing about writing your resume in LaTeX, is the ability to source control it so you don't have to keep several files tracking every tiny changes you introduced to the resume.

Feel free to check my git repo for the resume, and please send me your suggestions, improvements or any comment you have. You are surely welcome :)
https://github.com/lordm/resume

Project Mayhem

2011-08-07T01:44:00.000+02:00

The truth leads to freedom.
Inner peace is built by discovering your creator, and your purpose.
Knowledge is power.

The script behind "Revolving Images" spam on facebook and how to stop it

2010-11-23T23:24:00.001+02:00

This spam started a few days ago. Luckily i didn't catch it (i take good care of these things).
A few minutes ago, one my friends shared this post on how to cure and get rid of the spam.
http://thedolt.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/get-rid-of-the-revolving-images-spam-on-facebook/

I was very interested reading the javascript code behind it. So i grapped the source link of the javascript tag, and opened it a new chrome incognito window. It redirected me to facebook main page to login.
However, there's another way to view the code, simply curl it :). Open your terminal and write

curl http://graphicgiants.com/majic.js?show > fbscript.js

and enjoy reading the code :D

A Spike of Geekness

2010-10-29T22:07:00.001+02:00

It has become totally clear to me that i'm a geek. It's been a while since i have this feeling, but now i'm pretty sure of this.
I had some problems to solve for the Fuzzy Logic course in my master's study, and then there was a problem that needed to calculate a certain function for two sets of values and do some sets operations on them like union, intersection,...
The thing is, instead of getting the calculator and start working, i felt so lazy and decided to write a simple python script to finish it.
Pretty geeky, right :D . Here's the code anyway.

import math

A = [math.exp( (i-4)**2 /-8 ) for i in range(0,11)]
B = [math.exp( (i-8)**2 /-8 ) for i in range(0,11)]

print "A"
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,A[i]

print "\nB"
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,B[i]

print "\nAUB"
Un = [max(A[i],B[i]) for i in range(0,11)]
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,Un[i]

print "\nA^B"
In = [min(A[i],B[i]) for i in range(0,11)]
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,In[i]

print "\nAc"
Ac = [1.0 - A[i] for i in range(0,11)]
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,Ac[i]

print "\nBc"
Bc = [1.0 - B[i] for i in range(0,11)]
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,Bc[i]

print "\nAdB"
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,min(A[i],Bc[i])

print "\nBdA"
for i in range (0,11):
    print i,min(Ac[i],B[i])

Geek In Peace fellas

My favourite lines and quotes from The Matrix Trilogy

2010-10-15T22:15:00.000+02:00

Ten days ago, The Matrix Trilogy were played on some channel. Ofcourse i didn't miss the chance to watch them. And i took the chance to write down my favourite lines and quotes from the trilogy. My facebook friends watched me writing them on my wall (yes all of them :D).

Anyway, i created a new page with for the trilogy that contains all of them. And soon i will add more quotes from the AniMatrix and "Enter The Matrix" videogame.

How to configure GTalk chat for Google Apps accounts on Pidgin

2010-08-22T21:41:00.000+02:00

Pidgin is a powerful IM client on Ubuntu. I use it for my yahoo, gmail, google apps accounts, msn (although i like aMSN more).

Anyway, here's how to configure your google apps account on pidgin, (other accounts are much simpler to configure):
- Add a new account on pidgin, select XMPP protocol.
- Set your screen name, password, your corporate server domain e.g. "mycorporate.com".
- For resource , set it to "Home".
- In Advanced tab, check "Require SSL/TLS" and "Force old (port 5223) SSL".
- Set Connect port to 5223, Connect server to "talk.google.com".
- Set File transfer proxies to "proxy.eu.jabber.org".
- Save your account. It will connect to the server now.

Yet another Editor flame war

2010-08-19T00:37:00.000+02:00

Few days ago there were sort like of a micro flame war between some of my friends on google buzz. Emacs Vs Vi(m), the endless geek holy war :D. Since i never used any of them, i decided to give it a try and figure out what's best for me.

After googling and reading many articles and posts, i still don't know the answer. However, i will start using Vim first then maybe later switch to Emacs. One of the reasons for choosing Vim is that i found a cheat sheet for it easily and it was much simpler than emacs's one. (i know it's not a killer argue, but works for a beginner like me)

Here's the best ones i stumbled upon my googling. Have Fun.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor_war
- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1812926/i-am-looking-for-tips-for-learning-vim-or-emacs-the-smart-way
- http://www.diffen.com/difference/Emacs_vs_Vim
- http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/19661
- http://www.wikivs.com/wiki/Vim_vs_Emacs
- http://www.moolenaar.net/habits.html
- http://www.viemu.com/a-why-vi-vim.html
- http://www.swaroopch.com/notes/Vim
- http://philosecurity.org/2009/03/23/pirates-and-ninjas-emacs-or-vi

Software Quality Assurance 101: Part III

2010-07-13T21:01:00.000+03:00

In the last part of this series, i'll present briefly some definitions of various types of testing and when they are performed during the development phases.

Ad hoc Testing
It's a random testing that means testing an application without proper test plan. It's carried out at the end of the project when all the test cases are executed. To check the application randomly or it's carried out in CMM 1 level company where test are executed without planning.

Cross Testing
Cross-platform testing is used to ensure the quality of the end product when working under different types, versions and locales of operating systems, and to guarantee seamless work of the application.
Cross-browser testing is like cross-platform testing but here web applications must operate for various browsers.

Cross-browser testing is carried out to ensure that:
* Users have the same visual experience, regardless of the browsers through which they view the web application.
* The application behaves and responds in the same way in terms of functionality across different browsers.

Regression Testing
Checking to determine if legacy features are broken because of a particular change in the software; e.g.: the introduction of new features, a bug fix. As a stage of test execution, regression testing comes after new feature testing.

There are 2 reasons for regression testing:
1. it’s often extremely difficult for a programmer to figure out how a change in one part of the software will echo in other parts of the software
2. Programmers sometimes change software without even trying to figure out if their changes might break something else

Integration Testing
It’s when Individual software modules are combined and tested as a group. It occurs after unit testing and before system testing.
The purpose of integration testing is to verify functional, performance and reliability requirements placed on major design items.

System Testing
System testing of software or hardware is testing conducted on a complete, integrated system to evaluate the system's compliance with its specified requirements. System testing falls within the scope of black box testing, and as such, should require no knowledge of the inner design of the code or logic.
The purpose of integration testing is to detect any inconsistencies between the software units that are integrated together (called assemblages) or between any of the assemblages and the hardware. System testing is a more limiting type of testing; it seeks to detect defects both within the "inter-assemblages" and also within the system as a whole.

Smoke Testing
A check to determine if the software is testable. Also known as a build verification test. Smoke testing is done by developers before the build is released to the testers or by testers before accepting a build for further testing.
During a smoke test, we check the main flows of the main features. The purpose is to determine whether or not the application is so badly broken that testing functionality in a more detailed way is unnecessary. These written tests can either be performed manually or using an automated tool.

Unit Testing
Method of testing that verifies the individual units of source code are working properly. A unit is the smallest testable part of an application. In procedural programming a unit may be an individual program, function, procedure, etc., while in object-oriented programming, the smallest unit is a method, which may belong to a base/super class, abstract class or derived/child class.
Unit testing is usually performed by the programmer against his or her own freshly baked code.
The goal of unit testing is to isolate each part of the program and show that the individual parts are correct

Software Quality Assurance 101: Part II

2010-07-09T17:00:00.001+03:00

The goal of performance testing is not to find bugs, but to eliminate bottlenecks and establish a baseline for future regression testing. For a Web application, testers will use tools that simulate concurrent users/HTTP connections and measure response times.

Stress Testing, Load Testing and Performance Testing are very close to each, they almost use the same methods but they vary in their approach.

In the white-box approach, testers, developers, system administrators and DBAs work together in order to instrument the application code and the database queries (via specialized profilers for example), and the hardware/operating system of the server(s) running the application and the database (via monitoring tools such as vmstat, iostat, top or Windows PerfMon). All these activities belong to performance testing.

The black box approach is to run client load tools against the application in order to measure its responsiveness. Such tools range from lightweight, command-line driven tools such as httperf, openload, siege, Apache Flood, to more heavy duty tools such as OpenSTA, The Grinder, JMeter. This type of testing doesn't look at the internal behavior of the application, nor does it monitor the hardware/OS resources on the server(s) hosting the application. This belongs to load testing.

Stress Testing
It’s the process of determining the ability to maintain a certain level of effectiveness under unfavorable conditions. The process can involve quantitative tests done in a lab, such as measuring the frequency of errors or system crashes.
We tend to measure the stability of the system, robustness, availability, and error handling under a heavy load.

Stress testing tries to break the system under test by overwhelming its resources or by taking resources away from it (in which case it is sometimes called negative testing). The main purpose behind this madness is to make sure that the system fails and recovers gracefully. This quality is known as recoverability.

Load Testing
It’ the process of subjecting a system to a work level approaching the limits of its specifications. Load testing can be done under controlled lab conditions to compare the capabilities of different systems or to accurately measure the capabilities of a single system. Load testing can also be done in the field to obtain a qualitative idea of how well a system functions in the "real world."

In the testing literature, the term "load testing" is usually defined as the process of exercising the system under test by feeding it the largest tasks it can operate with. Load testing is sometimes called volume testing, or longevity/endurance testing.Load testing can provide the user with a general idea of how many applications or processes can be run simultaneously while maintaining the rated level of performance.

Software Quality Assurance 101: Part I

2010-06-18T21:00:00.001+03:00

Hey, it's summer time and i'm almost graduated.These days job interviews taking place in many companies here in Alexandria.As part of my preparations to these interviews i thought to share some information i know about Software Quality Assurance and Software Testing, hoping someone will find it useful for him/her.

Quality Assurance, Software Testing & Quality Engineer
Quality Assurance is now a must in any IT industry. Any company that needs to improve its reputation must preserve and perform quality assurance principles and methods.
Quality of a software ensures that the product perform the functions the user wants, providing usability of the product without much effort from the user. It also ensures that the product is efficient in terms of performance measures and is secure enough to keep the user’s data safe from any malicious attacks.
As quality assurance serves users, it also serves developers in maintaining the expandability of the product for further features to add. It helps in keeping the product maintainable and reusable for further development phases.

The major act in quality assurance is about Software Testing. It’s the process for ensuring the quality of our software through various and multiple methods which tends to detects defects and handle them in the suitable appropriate way. Software Testers tend to destroy their own product in order to discover known and hidden bugs in the product. Early detection of issues in the product serve to reduce the amount of time and work performed in fixing and reworking on the defected modules\units in the product.

Software Testing includes many phases of testing which start in parallel throughout the project since the beginning of the planning and passing by product design, implementation and release.
The Quality Engineer (QE) begins in formulating the testing plan after some requirements definition meetings with the customer and the Project Leader. The testing plan will serve as a guide for further testing phases.
In Developing phase, the QE starts writing the test cases that will be used in testing the project various phases. These test cases are based upon the specified project requirements.
Functional/Unit Testing is applied to check the inputs and outputs of each unit in the project are correct. The testing can be done either manually by the QE or automated by testing scripts and testing tools and programs.

Testing Methods
Two forms of testing methods exist: White Box Testing and Black Box Testing.

Black Box Testing is testing the modules with no information about the internal architecture and building of the module. It’s simply monitoring the outputs of the modules to a certain specified inputs. If unexpected outputs occur, then some issues must be detected.

White Box Testing is opposing to the Black Box Testing where test cases are build upon the knowledge of the internal architecture and implementation of the module. Here it must be ensured that every statement is tested as untested statements can cause undetected issues.

Testing Levels
Then a Smoke Test is applied to ensure that any further testing steps won’t be needless in case the system is really defecting. Smoke test is applied upon every build of the product.

In mean while, any bugs or defections found are being submitted to the bug tracking system (Bug Base) to pass them to the developers to fix. The Project leader views the issues and passes them to the developers for appropriate handling.
Once they are fixed, test cases are applied again to ensure that no other bugs have risen upon fixation.

When each module or part of the project is completed and tested successfully, an integration test is needed to ensure that no issues appear upon integration of the modules.

Another phase of testing is the System Testing, where test cases are applied for all aspects of the system to ensure that no issues appear and to ensure the usability of the product.

Performance Test is applied to check the product behavior and performance like CPU Usage, memory leakage, etc.. . Automated programs are used to measure the product performance and monitor the desired properties to check in product performance.

A Security Test is applied to ensure that are no issues causing serious security problems in the product. The product must be maintained secure from any form of malicious attacks or innocent attacks caused by uneducated users.

Stress Test is performed to ensure the capability of the system to perform under heavy loads of usage e.g.: A web service is tested to perform under usage of 100000 users logged in the same time.

Installation and Compatibility Test is applied to ensure the product won’t contain issues upon installation on a certain environment or operating system. The aim of this test is to ensure the portability of the product through various environments as needed as specified in the customer requirements.

Some Python tips & tricks

2010-05-05T00:00:00.002+03:00

Long time since my last post,i'm kinda busy with my last term as an undergrad. Anyway i'll reward you with some posts (hope so) starting with this one.
Last summer i learned python as you may know from a previous post. And this semester i used it in the Pattern Recognition course projects. I know Matlab is best suitable for them but i had no time to learn Matlab.
During the projects i learned so many useful things about python and some few tips and tricks that help writing better code. So here you are some of them ..

1- Follow Google styleguide for python http://google-styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/pyguide.html

2- sorting a dictionary

unsorteddic = {'a':5,'b':4,'c':3,'d':2,'e':1}
result = sorted(unsorteddic.items(),lambda x,y: cmp(x[1],y[1]))

3- dividing a list into equal sized sub lists using lambda functions. Lambda functions are very powerful tools to use in your code.

#A:list to split, size: size of each sublist
splitter = lambda A,size: [A[i:i+size]for i in range (0,len(A),size)]

#in the main code, we want to divide data into 3 sub sets
data = [(1,2),(3,4),(5,6),(7,8),(9,10),(11,12),(13,14),(15,16),(17,18)]
triplet = len(data)/3
sublist1,sublist2,sublist3 = splitter(data,triplet)

4- using zip function to separate/combine pairs in a list, like x,y coordinates of points.

XY = [(1,2),(3,4),(5,6),(7,8),(9,10),(11,12),(13,14),(15,16),(17,18)]
#separating them
X,Y = zip(*XY)
#combining results again
recombined = zip(X,Y)

5- using list comprehension to optimize your code and save time. For this example it's better to use the last zip function (follow the Zen of Python)

XY = [(1,2),(3,4),(5,6),(7,8),(9,10),(11,12),(13,14),(15,16),(17,18)]
#implementing our zip function
X,Y = [XY[i][0] for i in range(0,len(XY))],[XY[i][1] for i in range(0,len(XY))]
#recombining again
recombined = [tuple(X[i],Y[i]) for i in range(0,len(X))]

That's most of the things i used in my projects. Ofcourse there are more but still i am a beginner. If you have any suggestion to the above code you are sure welcomed.
Python in peace

Hello Shell Script

2010-02-15T09:44:00.017+02:00

Yesterday i were trying to run opensocial php library and faced some problems with permissions that led me not able to run any php file in the library. Anyway the solution was very simple . Just

chmod 777 myfile.php

and everything will just work.
The problem i had was that the library directory contains 2 subdirectories, one has more than 10 php files and the other has more 8 subdirectories with each one of a few php files.
Stupid Solution:

cd dir1
chmod 777 file1.php
chmod 777 file2.php
...

Very stupid indeed :D
A better solution:

cd dir1
ls | xargs chmod 777

this simply list all the files in dir1 and pipelines them to the chmod command.
another problem : you need to apply this line to all the subdirectories in dir2

I thought there must be a better way to do this tedious work. Shell script is of course the answer, but since i never dealt with it and it's not the time to read about it, so i passed over all the subdirectories and applied the past solution.

Afterwards i began to think about a script to do this job. First i thought of using a recursive function to get each subdirectory but i faced a infinite loop. (i didn't fix that problem and probably won't :D). Also the chmod will throw an error due invalid file path.

#!/bin/sh

#recursively chmod  all the subfolders and files
listfile(){
if [ "$(ls $1)" ]; then
  echo "$1 not empty"
  for file in "$(ls $1)"
    do
      if [! -d $file ]
      then
        chmod 777 "$file"
      else
        listfile "$file"
      fi
  done
else
  echo "$1 is empty"
fi
}

listfile "$1"

Then i found a script that gets all the subdirectories of a given directory.
After few trials and some googling finally the script worked.

#!/bin/bash

#test if arg is not a directory
if [ ! -d $1 ]
then
  echo "$1 is not a directory!"
  exit 1
fi

#get all subdirectories
DIRS=$(find "$1" -type d)

for d in $DIRS
do
  if [ "$d" != "." -a "$d" != ".." ]
  then
      #get all files in subdirectory
      for file in $(ls $d)
      do
         chmod 777 "$d/$file"
      done
  fi
done

I'm very glad the script worked. Although i miss lots of details about the language; but mainly now i know about using variables, looping, if condition, functions. Also some new shell commands like find, locate, readlink, xargs.

If you find any better script or ideas or bugs, your comment is very welcomed :D.

How to master anything, the Guide

2010-02-05T21:23:00.001+02:00

yeah, as the title says. My post today gonna give the guide to master anything you want. Of course it's not a silver bullet for everything, but most of the time is :D.

Let me first tell how i reached this conclusion through 3 different activities.

Around six years ago, i had an obsession with the game Minesweeper. At first i were very slow and didn't even complete the hard level. by the time, i made some progress. Now i reached a very good level: 6s for beginner, 48s for intermediate, 166s for expert.

Around 4 years ago, i started 2 things simultaneously: playing guitar and keyboard speed touching.
Although they may sound different but there's a common attribute between them. Both requires some neurological synchronization between your both hands and between fingers themselves.
Also at the beginning i were too slow at both :D. Now,thanks God, i am relatively good at guitar (but still sucks :D) and can type on keyboard at 50 WPM approx.
Sometimes when i don't practice guitar for weeks, the next time i hold the guitar i find myself better and faster. The only possible explanation for this is the keyboard typing which i do during the non practicing guitar weeks. Both activities effects each other.

Did anyone notice the common pattern between these 3 things. They all start very slowly and then speed is gained progressively.
Also, the famous guitar lessons and tutorials advise any guitar player to start playing what he wants to play at a slow temp(speed) until he plays it perfectly. Then progressively increase the temp and master what you do. You repeat this process until you reach your desired tempo and Voila .. you're done.

So the answer is very easy. To master anything, first start by doing it at a slow speed but with high accuracy and strength. When you do it perfectly, increase your speed and re-practice it again. The more you practice, the more you gain accuracy and strength and be perfect at what you do.

Unfortunately, there's a catch here. Practicing needs time, and time is not large enough to practice everything. So you need to define your priorities and choose what you're more passionate about. Because simply you can't do everything.

To summarize, always remember the proverb : "Practice makes Perfect".

The longest year

2009-12-31T23:42:00.002+02:00

It's been a while since my last post. I had no time to write anything although i want to talk about lots of things. Anyway more posts will be coming soon (most of them will be technical , i hope).

A few minutes from now 2009 will end and 2010 will begin. What a year it was.
They say "good times go faster", amazingly that didn't happen to me this year :D, especially the last week of it where i had massive number of sheets, assignments and labs to deliver in just few days, not to mention ofcourse studying :S

I can't believe that 2009 still didn't end long ago. I feel it has been a decade not a year.
So much was accomplished in 2009 , thanks God. I believe that's one of the best years in my life beside the year 2005.

Ubuntu 9.10: hey Microsoft, I'm your worst nightmares

2009-10-30T21:30:00.002+02:00

I wanted to write 1st impression about the new Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.
This version of Ubuntu is just amazing. It's taking the Linux operating systems into a higher level.

- Ubuntu performance is great. Applications are way faster than before.
- It's more user friendly. A beginner with Ubuntu and Linux can easily find his way to the basic functionality of the system.
The User Interface is improved and more organized. They changed almost every icon in the system to a more elegant one.
The Login Window is more elegant even than Ubuntu 9.04.
- The Add/Remove Applications tool is not installed by default now. They replaced it with a new program "Ubuntu Software Center". The new center is more user friendly and shows the applications categories first.
- Good news for me :D (and intel video cards owner), Karmic now supports the intel video cards.
There will be no flickering problems on 3D and compiz. (Used to have when i play a video and rotate the desktop cube, used to have black in the video window)

I have only 2 comments on Karmic:
1- Boot Time is relatively longer than Ubuntu 9.04. Maybe coz i have lots of apps, 2 of them are MySql server and Apache server :D.

2- NTFS partitions behave differently. You need to type your password everytime you mount them (ofcourse this can be changed easily).

Anyway, Karmic is worth trying. It's the Linux distribution you can give it to your non-geeky friends.
I can really say now "Linux for Human Beings" :)

Temet Nosce

2009-10-29T01:00:00.002+02:00

To find your favorite movie on TV and watch it may be a coincidence. But, to find again after 16 days on TV , this time that's no coincidence. Each of the two incidents happened before 19 and 3 days of my birthday (both 19 and 3 are prime numbers). And to find it for the third time just 1 day next to my birthday is definitely a serious sign for something.

Anyway i don't believe in coincidences."God does not play with dice." Albert Einstein.
However, such times makes you wander about yourself. The more you understand yourself , the more you understand the whole world.

Watching this movie awakened some old thoughts in my mind. One of these thoughts is about Choice. Do we really have the freedom to choose what we want, or is it just an illusion we sense as we live according to determined events.

"You've already made the choice. Now you have to understand it.". I guess small things we do and decide everyday even if they're unimportant or negligible, are the most role play that frames the vital decisions and choices in our life.

I believe the solution to this dilemma is to follow your intuition. Don't plan much. Leave it happen flawlessly. Rely on remarkable signs in your life that will guide you to your choice. That one you've already made.

Software Freedom Day: Epilogue

2009-09-21T04:00:00.001+02:00

A week ago, the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University has ended. I had fun and pleasure to participate with the event's organization team. It was really a nice team to work with.
It was also so rewarding seeing the joy and passion in the eyes of the attendees, showing them that Open Source is really a great and reliable solution for their daily life computer usage.

Finally, this will be the last post in my series about the event. Here's a list of the previous ones.

Until the next time, i say again , it's time to Take Control Of Your Digital Life. :)

Get A Grip (my new demo track)

2009-09-19T09:00:00.006+02:00

Today is one of the great days when i feel very productive and satisfied, coz today i composed a new track and finished it from scratch in about 4.5 hours.
I don't know how i did that :D , all my previous trials and samples were totally screwed.

When you hear it you'll feel the instruments are not quite natural. Yeah they are digital samples created in Fruity Loops 8. I didn't play by myself :D.
Anyway, here's the track, it's called "Get A Grip", and it's still a Demo till i manage to enhance it or play it live.

Get A Grip (Demo) by ŁØЯÐ M

Have Fun and tell me your opinion :)

SFD: It's Cloudy

2009-09-18T05:00:00.001+02:00

This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

During the past two weeks of the events, i've set a small system for me to follow my organizational tasks.
The special thing about it, it was all on the cloud :D.

Maybe it's the best feature i like about Google. That approach of porting the applications to the web.

For mails, i used GMail. And GMail Tasks list to store the task to do just right after i get them by mail.
Google Calendar is good for storing the meetings dates and other stuff.
I used Google Reader to follow my team members' blogs (as we were assigned to post regularly about the event and the open source culture).
And the most important one, Google Docs.
I used Docs to create a form for the study group of Python i have been mentoring.
Also, the organizers team shared the event's program on Docs.

What to say, it's been superb to organize myself around Google web apps. They aided me for more productivity and time saving.

As i always say at the end, "God bless Google" :D

SFD: My Python Session

2009-09-14T15:30:00.001+02:00

This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

Today i were presenting my session in Software Freedom Day event.
The session was titled "Programming Under Linux In Python".

For about one hour, with attendance of about 30 persons, i introduced the Python language first , its features and problems, explained the syntax of python language and showed some demos of useful python scripts specially for Linux.

If you attended the session, let me know your feedback :)

Programming Under Linux In Python

View more presentations from Marwan Osman.

SFD: Middle Of The Journey

2009-09-09T21:00:00.000+02:00

This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

It's been a week since the software freedom day started.
I'm so grateful i joined the organization of this event. There have been great sessions presented by experienced speakers in the open source community.

I was a bit surprised by the numbers of attendees. I didn't expect that much number of people interested in free open source software.

As i mentioned we had great sessions in the event. Unfortunately,i couldn't attend all the sessions due to my organization tasks. The Good thing i had the chance to attend four important sessions in the event program.

The first two sessions were presented by Eng.\ Amr Ali from EGLug. He's an expert in security for Linux systems. He focused in his sessions on security awareness and some tips and guides in practicing more security in our daily life.

The other two sessions were presented by Eng.\ Mohamed Sayed (previous senior administrator at Yahoo!) . The first one was about open source solutions for infrastructures, and how to choose and set the suitable open source solutions for companies and organizations. The second one was about secure virtual tunnels connections. I didn't really get this one , but it got the main idea :D.

The event is still on for another week with more great sessions.
More posts about the event coming in the way,so stay tuned ...
Now with some pics (and some more to be posted soon)

SFD team with eng.\ Mohamed Sayed

SFD: Let The Party Begin ...

2009-09-02T21:53:00.007+02:00

This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

Yesterday, September the 1st , was the first day in Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University.
The day started early for me in order to participate in organization tasks.
After some time, the Keynote session presented by eng.\ Hamdy Khalil from eSpace started.Unfortunately i missed it :(.

However, i was rewarded by seeing the large number of people who were registering and standing in front of our desks. I don't know exactly how many but i estimate they reached 200. It was really an amazing feeling to see all of these people who came for something you've been working on and organizing for considerably a long time.

Afterwards, it was the 2nd session presented by eng.\ Ahmed Mekkawy (known as linuxawy from EGLUG and linux admin at eSpace ) . He talked about the philosophy of Open Source Software and the 4 Software Freedoms.

We're just starting the party. Study groups will begin in the next few days, more amazing sessions are coming and lots more ...

Come on and register now (if you still didn't) ,join us on the event page on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124455764728, check our program and keep track of the interesting sessions you find, and join us in our study groups:

Basics of Linux Terminal
Python
Virtual Box
C++
Ruby
Wikipedia
Java
LXDE

Final words to say , it's time to Take Control Of Your Digital Life (That's the event's theme by the way :D)

SFD: Obstacles in the way ...

2009-08-25T20:00:00.001+02:00

This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

Saturday the 22nd, first day of Ramadan, i woke up early, packed my laptop bag, and went to college. It was the 2nd meeting in our organization for the Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University.
Actually it was my first one as i didn't attend the first one :D.

After reviewing our progress till now in the event, we got the bad news. We have some problems concerning our fund.
Things are getting tougher now. However, we will not quit. Somehow we managed to fix some stuff and still working on others.

About the event, It will be 2 weeks long starting from September the 1st till September the 15th.
The two weeks will contain many activities:

Presentations covering wide range of Linux related topic:

Linux (Day to Day usage, Administration and Development).

Open Source programming languages (C, Java, PHP, Ruby and Python).

Closed Source replacements.

Open Source Culture.

The future of computing and the role of open source in the future.

Computer Security.

Live Demos of installing, configuring and using FOSS.

Stands that provide on-site installation and information.

Study Groups that provide participants with guidelines to teach themselves more about FOSS.

Contests held on different levels to urge participants to read a lot and know more.

The most featured speakers invited are :

Mohamed Hussein Sayed
Technical at Yahoo! inc.
Consultant at SkyFire Labs
Sr. Systems Administrator at MobiTV
Sr. Software engineer at Symantec corp.
Industry veteran with more than 10 years of experience in Linux and UNIX networking and development as well as RDBMS and large scale systems.
============================================
Ahmed Desouki Ahmed El-Mekkawy
eSpace Technologies
Solutions Team Leader for a team of Gnu/Linux administrators to
setup/maintaining development environment and services on the local
network and remote Administration for various development / testing /
production environments for world-wide clients

Come on and register now , and you may be one of the first 50 registered users and win with us ;)
https://dct.sun.com/dct/forms/reg_ae_1908_245_0.jsp
or join us on the event page on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124455764728

update: The event Program is now available .. check it now http://bit.ly/194CpU

SFD: Hello Python

2009-08-23T23:30:00.000+02:00

This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

Have you heard before about Monty Python's Flying Circus ? Most probably you didn't. However, Guido van Russom did , and ironically named the new language he wrote after it : Python.

About the origin of Python, Van Rossum wrote in 1996:

Over six years ago, in December 1989, I was looking for a "hobby" programming project that would keep me occupied during the week around Christmas. My office I would be closed, but I had a home computer, and not much else on my hands. I decided to write an interpreter for the new scripting language I had been thinking about lately: a descendant of ABC that would appeal to Unix/C hackers. I chose Python as a working title for the project, being in a slightly irreverent mood (and a big fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus).

Python definition as wikipedia says:

Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability.Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax",and its standard library is large and comprehensive. Its use of indentation as block delimiters is unusual among popular programming languages.

Python supports multiple programming paradigms (primarily object oriented, imperative, and functional) and features a fully dynamic type system and automatic memory management, similar to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, and Tcl. Like other dynamic languages, Python is often used as a scripting language.

In my personal opinion, i think Python is maybe the easiest programming language i've ever seen - besides Ruby also -. You can check yourself for the features and advantages of python.
Python works on all platforms, and comes by default in Ubuntu.

The most encouraging thing about python that it's one of the main languages used in Google, Youtube, Nasa, ...

Now, as usual when i encounter a new language, let's try a Hello World program.

#!usr/bin/python
#first python program

print('Hello World !!!')

I told you :D . Yeah , Python is very easy.
I needed a more challenging and complex hello world.
So, here's a script that connects to Twitter and post a new tweet on my profile.I used the twitter api for python Tweepy


#!usr/bin/python
#Send a new Tweet

from getpass import getpass
import tweepy

username = raw_input('Twitter username: ')
password = getpass('Twitter password: ')
basic_auth = tweepy.BasicAuthHandler(username, password)
api = tweepy.API(basic_auth)
api.update_status("Hello Twitter !!! I'm a Pythoneer")

And here's the results http://twitter.com/marwan_osman
Now, i can say "I am a Pythonist" or " a Pythoneer" :)

SFD: Why should you be interested in Free Open Source Software ??? (Part II)

2009-08-14T20:00:00.000+03:00

For The 1st post please refer here.
This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

11. Security :
Hacking attempts on servers are frequent, malware, trojans and viruses are commonplace and tools to help the hacker are readily available. No software is 100% immune from security vulnerabilities but the open source process itself delivers superior security performance.The Open Source development model and inherent security of Linux mean vastly improved protection from attack, and consequently less downtime and maintenance costs. Of the 1709 viruses reported in the latest "wildlist.org" report for March 2007, NONE of them would infect a Linux based computer. When a vulnerability is identified, it is often fixed in a matter of hours; proprietary software vendors sometimes take months to even announce the existence of a problem to its customers.

12. Quality :
Apart from proprietary vendor funded research, any independent reports you care to read which look at Open Source finds the quality of open source projects to be significantly better than proprietary software. The development model itself relies on constant peer review of the code and produces a highly modular design which makes it easier to read and fix. Releases tend to occur when the software is considered ready for use; not on a date set by a marketing department.

13. Bug fixing :
Almost all software releases contain bugs. Hopefully, the people developing the software will have spotted and dealt with anything obvious, but any development team has only so much time in which to test a piece of software before it is released.
When a bug is spotted in proprietary software, the only people who can fix it are the original developers, as only they have access to the source code. Open source software is different. As a large number of users can access and change the code, bugs tend to be more visible and more rapidly corrected. One of the slogans of the open source movement is that ‘given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow’ [Eric Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar].

14. Standards :
Open source software has largely defined the standards in use on the Internet today so it's no surprise to find that the same open standards are considered extremely important. Open standards allow products from different vendors to work together and also prevent business from getting "tied" to a single product from a single vendor. This is becoming increasingly important with regards to document storage and archival.

15. Support :
As well as paying for professional support from companies like ours, access to good support is usually available for free via mailing lists, forums and IRC, if you have the technical knowledge and skills to assimilate it. The help is often provided by the same people that wrote the original code.

16. Reliability :
Open source is peer reviewed software, which leads to more reliability. The infrastructure of the Internet is largely composed of open-source programs such as DNS, sendmail, Apache and languages such as HTML and Perl. They have proven to be both reliable and robust under the most strenuous conditions, namely the fast growth of the Internet.Low-cost: Open source software is often developed through community forums and collaboratives. Developers volunteer their time and expertise, and are coordinated by fewer paid programmers. The lower overhead costs translates into substantial savings, as does the fact that open source software typically does not have a per-seat licensing cost. According to Gartner, open source is even more attractive to businesses during tough economic times. In its 2009 enterprise software spending forecast, the industry analyst predicts that enterprises seeking to cut costs will be drawn to open source software, virtualization technologies and, because of tighter travel budges, unified messaging and collaboration technologies.

17. Translation :
With access to the source code it is easy to translate the language of the software interface. Large closed source commercial software vendors are usually unwilling to translate their products into less widely spoken languages, as the market for them would be too small to guarantee profit.
An example of this is the regional government of the South Tyrol, who developed a version of OpenOffice in the local Ladin language, which has around 30,000 speakers. This is too small a number to be worth commercial investment, but culturally important in terms of the survival of the language.

18. Learning from examples :
If you are interested in programming, open source code provides an excellent resource from which to learn, and open source projects provide a practical environment in which to test your skills. Just watching the development process can provide an education in itself. If you choose to submit code to an open source project, it will generally be checked and commented on by experienced programmers. Once you have convinced the project community that your code is of appropriate quality, you may be granted full committed rights yourself.
Ross Gardler of OSS Watch, and a member of The Apache Software Foundation, claims to ‘have learnt far more through open source than through any form of formal education or [software development] contract work.’

19. Fast deployment :
With open source software consumers needn't wait years to deploy a solution. Open source software can be “test driven” prior to procurement, and is particularly suitable for inter-agency collaboration, rapid prototyping and experimentation. Both known and unanticipated users can be rapidly provisioned.

20. Cost :
Many open source programs can be obtained at no cost or with a very low cost. This is often an important issue for individuals and in many cases this has been the main reason for an individual adopting a particular open source solution over a closed source alternative.
There are no license fees for an open source software, reducing annual license fees cost to zero. There is zero cost of scale, because open source doesn't require additional licenses as the installation grows.The only spends are towards the support for your software that ensure reliability and reduces running cost by at least 80%.
However, other costs may arise: training, consulting, maintenance, etc. As a result the total cost of ownership may not differ between a closed source solution and an open source alternative for institutions. However, in some particular markets the difference in price can be significant between a closed source solution and an open source solution.

Do I need to say more :D ??

In shorter points:

Strategic Benefits

Shorter time to market for new business capabilities
Better application integration based on open standards
Ability to influence or create new features in future releases
Safety from vendor lock-in or abandonment
Open source methods and tools aid partner co-development
Reduced security, liability, regulatory and downtime risk
Usually lower acquisition costs than for proprietary software

Financial Benefits

Free or "fair" software acquisition cost
Buy or Source once and copy to every machine that needs it
Freedom from Vendor Lock-in upgrade fees
Free or low cost community support for non-mission critical services
FLOSS typically runs fine on older hardware reducing or delaying hardware upgrade costs
Rapid development of new features or bug fixes
Reduced Security Costs

Performance Benefits

More uptime, less downtime
Rapid testing and deployment due to instant availability
Scaling (The Internet is built mainly on FLOSS)

Platform Independence
Rapid turnaround for bugs and/or security flaws.

The Paragraph that summarize it all
"The Open Source community attracts very bright, very motivated developers, who although frequently unpaid, are often very disciplined. In addition, these developers are not part of corporate cultures where the best route to large salaries is to move into management, hence some Open Source developers are amongst the most experienced in the industry. In addition all users of Open Source products have access to the source code and debugging tools, and hence often suggest both bug fixes and enhancements as actual changes to the source code. Consequently the quality of software produced by the Open Source community sometimes exceeds that produced by purely commercial organisations." (QINETIQ2001)

SFD: Why should you be interested in Free Open Source Software ??? (Part I)

2009-08-14T02:00:00.001+03:00

This post is one of the series intended for the Software Freedom Day event in Alexandria University,Egypt ,organized by Software Freedom Day@Alexandria University team.

Note: Before i began preparing this post i never thought it would be that long :). I hope you have enough patience to finish it all. I tried to collect the most common info so you'll be totally convinced about Free Open Source Software.
I will break the post into 2 posts so each one won't be too long when you're scrolling your mouse :D.

The most common question people ask me whenever i tell them about Linux and Open Source concepts is "Why should i be interested in that ?" or " Is that better than Windows?". Let's search for a convenient answer to this question and dig into the benefits of Open Source. After a good googling i found the following benefits.

1. Being part of a community :
By adopting open source software you become part of a community of users and developers who have an interest in working together to support each other and improve the software. The extent to which you engage with this community is up to you, but you may obtain the intangible benefits of goodwill if you do.Programmers in particular can benefit from belonging to an open source community. It can help establish reputation and respect, as well as gaining valuable experience.

2. Public Collaboration :
One of the major benefits of open source software is the public collaboration behind each project. Most open source projects are created by tens of thousands of programmers all collaborating to create, and improve upon, a flawless website framework.
Many software development companies use a proprietary, or home built, system as the framework for the websites they create. Open source software, such as WordPress and Drupal, were developed by thousands of talented developers. What would you rather own, a software package created by a handful of developers, or a software package created by thousands of developers? Open source software promotes software reliability and quality by supporting independent peer review and rapid evolution of source code. A proprietary solution can not compare to that of open source.

3. Choice :
By its very nature, the source code of open source software is available to all, meaning that no one company owns the software. Any company can build upon open source software. It may be operated and maintained by multiple vendors, reducing both barriers to entry and exit. A customer can easily choose another vendor because they are not locked in to one vendor's offering.

4. Not bound to a single development company :
With thousands of developers already 100% knowledgeable with your software framework, any open source friendly company can work on your website. Don’t be bound to a single development company because you are stuck using their proprietary software.

5. Avoiding lock-in:
Organizations are said to be ‘locked-in’ to software products when the costs of switching to alternatives are prohibitively high.
Proprietary software vendors can ‘lock’ users in to their products by ensuring that they are not readily compatible with potential rivals. Vendors may then increase the price of product upgrades or support without too great a risk of losing existing customers.
As there is no incentive to use non-standard formats to inhibit compatibility, open source software tends to use open standard formats and there is little danger of being ‘locked-in’ by a vendor. Even when non-standard formats are used in open-source code, it is always possible to document them from the source code. On the contrary, closed formats used by proprietary software need to be reverse-enginered, a burdensome and expensive process that may need to be repeated when the format is subsequently changed.

It should be admitted, of course, that open source software does not come without switching costs of its own. Some administrative and re-training costs must be borne by any organisation that opts to switch between different software. And proprietary software may use open standards too, as is the case with Adobe's Acrobat Reader, a closed-source programme to read PDF files (PDF format is an open standard). Indeed the use of open standards is especially important in ensuring future access to data as it will be possible to find or create alternative programs that conform to the standard.

6. Flexibility :
Open source software is transparent. If there's something you want it to do you can either modify the product yourself or pay someone to do it for you. If you wish to, you are free to contribute your modifications back to the community so that the software continues to improve. Most Open Source licenses only require you to do this if you re-distribute your modified product to others.

7. Customization :
Closed source applications can only be customized or adapted within the scope provided by the original vendor but never outside its boundaries. Open source applications may be customized by anyone with the requisite skill. Thus, open source software can be readily adapted to meet specific user needs. Even if you cannot program yourself, if you would like something added or customized you can generally pay an appropriately skilled software developer to do it for you.
For businesses or educational institutions, the ability to customize source code may enable improvements to the ‘best practice’ provided by default installations, therefore improving efficiency and possibly providing a competitive advantage.

The Open University made a decision in 2005 to invest a substantial sum of money in developing the Moodle virtual learning environment to best suit their requirements. As the Moodle source code is open, they can do this for themselves rather than having to persuade a commercial vendor to do so on their behalf.

8. Take control of your software :
Open source software gives you the power to control your software's code. You have the right to modify the code to suit your requirements and control the budgets that you want to spend towards it. Unlike proprietary software, where the vendor controls your code, upgrades and budgets -- with open source software, you control the upgrade process and can choose to decide which bugs to fix and when.

9. Continuity :
It is possible that a proprietary software company shuts shop or decides to discontinue services for a software. With it goes the support and the future of the software. Open source software is not dependent on a single entity and gives users the advantage of the community. Any developer can choose to take up the software and continue from where it stopped.

10. Auditability :
Closed-source software forces its users to trust the vendor when claims are made for qualities such as security, freedom from vulnerabilities, adherence to standards and flexibility in the face of future changes. If the source code is not publicly available those claims remain simply claims. By publishing the source code, authors make it possible for users of the software to have confidence that there is a basis for those claims.

To Be Continued ...

Software Freedom Day: Prologue

2009-08-10T21:00:00.002+03:00

If you're familiar with open source communities you may have heard about "Software Freedom Day".
Anyway let's start from the beginning.

About a week ago, i got a mail inviting me to the Software Freedom day at our university. After some reading about it, i realized i should be there.
So within the next days i applied with my local team to join them as a volunteer, the Alexandira University team SFD@Alexandria University.

Unfortunately, i missed the first meeting with them due to my summer internship with ITWorx.(but that's another story)

Software Freedom Day definition as it comes on its website:
Software Freedom Day is a global celebration and education of why transparent and sustainable technologies are now more important than ever. With over 200 teams in 60 countries participating, it is a fantastic event to get your schools and communities involved in. Go along to your local event or start your own event and meet a wide range of people, all working together to help ensure our freedoms are maintained by the technologies of tomorrow.

Another interesting point is Richard's Stallman definition of "Freedom" of software. He said:
"Free software" is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of "free" as in "free speech," not as in "free beer."

Hope you come and join us in our team SFD@Alexandria University , or join your local team wherever you are.

Here's all the links that may help you to know more about this event. And of course don't hesitate to contact me directly :).

http://softwarefreedomday.org/sfi
http://softwarefreedomday.org/teams/egypt/alexandria_university
http://osum.sun.com/events/software-freedom-day-6
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=124455764728&ref=mf

P.S: I don't know why i remember The Matrix when i hear the term "Free Software", visualizing Agent Smith trying to get "free" from the matrix :D

update: i forgot to say this :D . During the next month i will be posting regularly in form of series about open source technologies and the Software Freedom day event. So keep tuning for more ...

Third Music Renaissance

2009-08-07T03:20:00.002+03:00

I had no previous intentions to write this post. I was preparing one big post about the music i listen to and why i like it . My own theory about music that i like to call "The Rock theory" :).

Anyway, these days i am living my 3rd music renaissance. What is it ? Every once a while when i add new artists and bands to music library specially if they play a different genre than i am used to, i call this period a music renaissance.

The 3rd music renaissance started this year upon my discovery of last.fm.
Its artists are (in alphabetical order) :
Ambeon, Amorphis, Anthelion, Audioslave, Avenged Sevenfold, Ayreon, Bon Jovi, Camel, Chickenfoot, Coldplay, Epica, Estatic Fear, Eyes Set to kill, Iron Maiden, Kamelot, Kings of Leon, Megadeath, Muse, Nickelback, Nightwish, Nirvana, Novembre, Pink Floyd, Pipo & Elo, Placebo, Queen, Radiohead, Rascall Flats, Redeemers, Savatage, Scorpions, Slash's Sankepit, Stereophonics, The Foreshadowing, Type O Negative, U2

Not to mention the Classic music and Movies Sound tracks too , and yet the download list containing another 40 artists.

I think that's the biggest music renaissance i ever had.
Until i explain my Rock Theory in another post , you can check my music profile at last.fm , have fun :D
http://www.last.fm/user/lordm2005

Fixing Hotmail FireFox problem

2009-07-31T21:00:00.000+03:00

The last 2 days i had a problem in opening the hotmail and Microsoft live service website on FireFox. I thought it was temporary from the server itself.But then i found the hotmail working correctly on Chrome.And the more interesting thing , it works fine on Firefox on my laptop :D.

After some googling i found the problem was in the Add-on Adblock Plus. Its new update had conflicts with the hotmail.
Until the Adblock guys fix it, the solution to the problem is in disabling the add-on.

And now you can surf hotmail flawlessly.

An Apology

2009-07-31T16:42:00.002+03:00

It's been over 2 months now i haven't posted on this blog , mostly for my laziness. I feel i owe the blog and the blog readers an apology for this laziness :D.
So here i am , and am preparing some new posts.
Keep on following.

I've been Tuxed

2009-05-24T05:22:00.000+03:00

About a week ago i received my free Ubuntu 9.04 CD from Canonical. It's amazing the shipment was delivered in 2 weeks only :D .
It's now installed on my PC and laptop with the new file system Ext4.
The best thing is that i got Ubuntu stickers. so my laptop is officially running on Ubuntu.

Next week I'll be having my term final exams , then i have several projects to deliver ..etc.
But anyway , i am planning for one hell of a summer full of Linux and web programming , and developing some serious applications ( i hope so :) ).

Yet another "Where I am Spending my online and Why?"

2009-05-01T02:55:00.001+03:00

My friend Ahmad Saeed posted a nice post on his blog about his online activities , that's my reply to him :)

FaceBook: Who doesn't know about it :D ?
FriendFeed: Since i knew it from a friend recommendation , i visit friendfeed everyday. It's the like the facebook for the geeks :D.
Google Reader: My newspapers. It's where i read about I.T. and LOST and some other stuff.
Google Calendar: I use it to store my personal calendar.
Google Docs: I used it to store stuff i need to reach from any pc.
Google Analytics: for the blog , to view statistics about this blog.
Lostpedia: The ultimate source for LOST tv series. It contains almost everything about it. I keep reading interesting theories about the series and answers to the mystical secrets of LOST :D.

Installing Oracle 11g and Oracle Developer Suite 10g in Windows Vista

2009-04-27T21:22:00.001+03:00

For anyone who suffered like me in installing Oracle 11g (11.1.0.6.0) and Oracle Developer Suite 10g in Windows Vista , finally i managed to install them successfully after some googling.

Oracle 11g (11.1.0.6.0):

Oracle Developer Suite 10g:

Hope this post helped you, for any problems please send me.

update: before installing oracle server,install the LoopBack adapter as follows :
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/install.102/b14316/reqs.htm#CHDGIFBC

Totally mobile post

2009-04-18T17:30:00.001+02:00

Well I am writing this post to see if i can write lots of things as a blog post to my blog Phi-Infinity in the shortest amount of time using the transcriber input method in my mobile.YEAH ,i am posting from my HTC :D.
It's really great.

I am trying to begin studying since 3 hours ago but donnow why i can't :(.
The good thing is i installed Google Mobile Apps and played alot with them.
Now i can watch youtube videos ,write blogs ,read my mail,read my google reader feeds ,and lots of things... God Bless Google :)

Happy E and PI Day

2009-03-14T00:00:00.000+02:00

Today is March 14, the day when Albert Einstein was born. Also, today is the PI day.

H.U.D. ???

2009-03-08T03:07:00.001+02:00

That's gonna be a weird and frantic post . But as this blog is the "mental projection of my digital self" , that's what was projected :D.

If you knew what "H.U.D." means , plz tell me.

Miscellaneous stuff

2009-02-21T00:00:00.002+02:00

am gonna write about stuff that are too small to fit in separate posts.

1- The FriendFeed gadget -which u can see on the top of the side bar - is a great tool to interact with social media services websites.

	The blog you're reading now :D
	my FaceBook profile.
	my Google Reader shared items. (check part 2 of this post)
	Google Talk account.
	my Last.fm profile. You can find here what am listening to,my artists sorted on play counts,favorites songs too. You may have a look on it.
	Picasa web albums. There is only one album for my favorites pics.
	my Twitter page.
	my Youtube channel. You won't find many videos for me, but you can check my favorites and playlists.

2- Google Reader shared items: As i won't post regularly many posts :D , it will be nice to follow my shared items on Google Reader. I consider myself a good Google Reader user , i have many feeds i follow in technical and non-technical stuff. I consider it as an extension to this blog.
The posts varies from technical news , tutorials , Linux tutorials and news, anything...

Go there http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16481932446791036575 and check the posts , I recommend you to read the posts by Gustavo Duarte ( specially my colleagues :D) , it almost covers the Microprocessors course we had with many specific details.

What's the best Ajax Framework nowadays ??

2009-02-18T19:40:00.005+02:00

I've been messing around for the best Ajax framework in web applications nowadays. It's really a hard question to answer, specially with various opinions about each available framework.
It took me few days to decide the best of them. This doesn't mean the others are bad , but the best is the most popular and effective in development nowadays.

The most interesting frameworks i've found are : Prototype, script.aculo.us , Dojo , GWT , jQuery , YUI . They are the most popular ones with rich UI.
And the winner was .... jQuery !!

Simply, jQuery is easy, elegant, beautiful and the most popular framework. Just check this google trends chart to see what i mean :D ( what is its curve function :D ?)

It's easy . You can have some awesome effects with just few lines of code.
For example , here the source code for this nice folding effect.


 


 
  Fold

  
   Etiam libero neque, luctus a, eleifend nec, semper at, lorem. Sed pede. Nulla lorem metus, adipiscing ut, luctus sed, hendrerit vitae, mi.

And you can easily see , it's only one line of code :D.

Also , Microsoft announced that it will integrate jQuery as part of its Visual Studio tool set.(source here).
Just check the list of jQuery users and you'll be amazed :).The list contains for example Google, Amazon, IBM, NetFlix, Twitter, Dell,inc , NBC, CBS, BBC , Digg , SourceForge .... and many more.

I believe jQuery is the best available tool to develop web applications with rich ui contents. And it will reduce the amount of code needed.
Let me hear your opinions about jQuery and others frameworks :) !!

update: sorry for the inconvenient formatting of the code , i had some problems showing it properly, but am working on it.

Me and the HTC Touch

2009-02-10T22:20:00.001+02:00

After three years and half of using my classic Samsung D500 mobile , I have now a now phone :) .

I entered the Windows mobile world through my new HTC Touch.
It's a great mobile device. With many nice features i needed nowadays. Also i will start my Embedded Systems course in few days :D.
Maybe i'll consider trying to install Android on my HTC someday, but for now i'll stick with the Windows.

The technology now is heading more towards the embedded devices. The Windows mobile devices , iPhone and Android devices are the main topics in technology now. We're heading to total mobility now.

You'll notice that many of Google services are provided for mobile devices. Google has a good vision in Cloud Computing.

The Solitaire bug :D

2009-02-07T20:23:00.001+02:00

It was last summer night when i was playing solitaire , working on eclipse - i don't remember why - and listening to Opeth as usual. Then all of the sudden , it happened. I couldn't believe my eyes.
It's a bug in Solitaire :D. Of course the game stopped and there was no way to continue.

For anyone doubting , it's not made by photoshop :) , it's real . I just forgot about it , and discovered it again while sorting my pc.

update: Many didn't notice the bug, there are 2 spade aces :D.

Reblogging

2009-02-02T20:00:00.001+02:00

It's been about 4 months since my last post in a blog. I always wandered why i can't keep on posting regularly in one blog. Every time i get excited about a blog , i create it and post for few times, then .. suddenly i quit ( for being busy most of the time or lazy somtimes :D ).
Then i stumbled with an amazing post while reading my google reader feeds.
This post talked about blogging and compared it to going to the gym.
http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/01/06/blogging-gym-brain-boost/

It gave me great motivations to reblogging again with new ideas for enhancing my blogging techniques.

For now i'm preparing for new posts on both technical and non-technical sides. Also, i collected all posts i wrote before in any blog, and put them in this one. It's now easier to find all my writings.

If you have any ideas or comments ,you're welcomed :) .
c u soon , and stay tuned.

[Old 2008] Hello Android !

2008-09-18T04:10:00.002+02:00

Android, for those who don't know , is an open-source software stack for mobile devices developed by Google.
Read more about it here http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html.

I am not going to write about Android, but I'll give you a live sample.
I downloaded the Android SDK and Eclipse plug-in ( Google makes life easy :D ).
Here's the Hello World program i wrote.

By the way, T-Mobile USA will announce a mobile phone based on Google's Android OS at a New York press conference Sept. 23 (source here).

I feel it's going to be a great mobile platform , can't wait till Samsung announce their Android mobile phone :)

[Old 2008] Seinfeld and Bill gates Ad 2 : New Family

2008-09-13T03:56:00.002+02:00

Here's the second ad .. it's funny too .. i liked when Gates reads for the kid about inheritance and polymorphism .. hilarious

enjoy it :D

[Old 2008] Google Chrome is fixed now

2008-09-09T02:00:00.002+02:00

Google updated its browser Chrome with a patch that fixes all the problems that appeared in the beta version released last week.
Chrome version 0.2.149.27 had some bugs like ":%" and javascript on Facebook, and also a bug related to security that can be used by Hackers , as Google reported.
In the new version 0.2.149.29 all these problems were fixed , and the good thing you don't need to update it yourself . Chrome has an automatic update system that works even if the browser is closed.

That's why i love Google :D

[Old 2008] Seinfeld and Bill gates new Ad

2008-09-06T04:20:00.002+02:00

Jerry Seinfeld the famous comedian and Bill Gates appeared together in a commercial for Microsoft.
I was first amazed when i read about this :) . I searched on youtube for it and watched it .. it's funny somehow.
Microsoft starts a new commercial campaign with Seinfeld to gain trust of customers again.
The Ad is just a start , stay tuned for more :D.

[Old 2008] Google Chrome : When the war really began

2008-09-04T06:00:00.002+02:00

Tuesday 2nd September 2008 , Google announced the release of its new web browser Chrome beta version for XP/Vista.

It all started on last Monday when i read about google "Chrome". I was fascinated by the idea of web browser from google as i am good user of google products: gmail , calender,docs,reader ...
On tuesday chrome was launched. i downloaded it from http://www.google.com/chrome?hl=en , installed it.

WWWWOOOOOOOWWWWWW , what a design , that's some great GUI . I opened a site ,, ohhhhh!! it's very fast. How did that happen ??

Google is really a great company, just see how they explained Chrome through this comic book. It's interesting to read it, you'll admire the great technology they're working over.

mmm... so now we have Chrome , how will that affect on IE and FireFox ?? That's a good question.

Chrome started already to take a great attention. Through the last few days i read lots of articles about chrome: its features, concerns , similarities with IE .... Everyone is talking about chrome now.

Here's my conclusion from what i read:

Google is very concerned about Web. That's google purpose. They want to increase the role and importance of web applications, so they made chrome , a web browser created specially to support Web 2.0 and its applications.

Maybe they wanna kill Windows . you have all you need in web applications now , so why don't you use the web as your operating system. Who knows? maybe :) .

Google is the perfect candidate as Web 2.0 browser. The architecture they made is awsome. Still there are some points we may complain about. But remember it's still a Beta version.

The most interesting thing , Chrome grabbed 1% of the browser market in the first day. Considering this chart of the browser market last month (chart from http://marketshare.hitslink.com/) , google has a long battle in the way to dominate over IE.

As expected , Sergey Brin ( Google Co-founder ) said :"probably a subsequent version of Android is going to pick up a lot of the Chrome stack."

Chrome on Android. What a mobile platform will it be :).

Google Chrome is a good experiance worth trying , even if it lacks some features. I'm sure Google guys will add more power to Chrome.

Will Chrome pass over IE and FF ? It's hard to say , but surely the 2nd browsers war has begun now.

[Old 2007] V for Vendetta

2007-08-27T04:51:00.002+03:00

Did you watch this movie ?? This movie is just a perfect masterpiece .
The Wachowski brothers ( the writers , also writers and directors of the Matrix triology) continued showing their philosophical ideas in a marvellous and beautiful way.

The movie makes you think in its meanings , the philosophy in it , its political ideas , whether you are with or against .

It also shows the meaning of pure love. "V" and "Evey" loved each other , also she didn't ( neither us did) saw his face.

One more thing i loved in this movie , in every scene you almost can find a quote or a phrase with high philosophical idea , which can be used as quotes.

i.e.: Ideas are bullet-proof

For those who watched the movie , answer to the following :
when was the matrix revolutions released ??
yes , good answer . it's the 5th of November.

in the end i say :"Remember, remember the 5th of November. The gunpowder, treason, and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."

[Old 2007] west el balad band party

2007-08-26T04:15:00.001+03:00

today i attended the night concert for "west el balad" band in the romanian theatre ....
i heard about them before ,, but didn't hear their songs ...
so i went to discover them .
i liked them .. they are mixing jazz, rock, blues and Arabic music together , introducing us a very good music in the end ..

their style is very special and they are very talented ... i think soon they will have more popularity in egypt .. they deserve the better.

at the end they are confirming my musical theory :"The good music is good. Whatever style you play it with ,, it will always remains good".

[Old 2007] Hello World

2007-08-25T07:46:00.003+03:00

Hello World ...

haha ... the first word i thought to write it here was "hello world" , seems like i can't get off programming ..

anyway .. here we go with my first blog ,, well ... what i will put in this blog ??

now i donnow ... maybe i'll put a song .. or a situation happened to me .. or maybe a program :D .

whatever i post here .. the most important that someone reads it .( at least to feel that i don't write to my self) .

well , goodbye for now ... wait for the upcoming posts.