The Learning Journey

The most innovative imaging service I’ve seen since Riya and Photosynth. Fotowoosh, a real innovation, through Freewebs.

The service (currently in alpha) takes your regular 2D images and transfers them into 3D ones automatically.

I guess this makes freewebs a very good buyout candidate to <place_your_favorite_company_here>

via TechCrunch

Well … I guess it’s never too late.

I’ve seen this video a while back, but, why not share the admiration with few more.

“The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less” by Prof. Barry Schwartz - Google Tech Talks series.

Couple of quick thoughts:

A man sentenced to death in Kuwait for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies now sits in Iraq’s parliament, according to U.S. military intelligence — via cnn

Does it take a “Military Intelligence” to say that a man who’s ‘publicly’ a member of the Iraqi parliament is actually ‘publicly’ convicted in Kuwait? What do these guys use a source of intelligence? The Internet?

On another note:

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Monday asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of a Russian teacher accused of using pirated software in his classroom ….[and] is threatened with detention in Siberian prison camps - via cnn

There’s no question that Mr. Gates should intervene (I think he would). The question is HOW? Should he show it to the world? Should he write an open letter back? Should he open a private school, with labs equipped with Vista, and hire the teacher as a principle?

What do you think?

باسمك اللهم

I arrived at Amman's (Queen Alia's airport) at 8:00 PM. George & Karim were waiting there with a sign carrying, not my name, but rather “Ruby on Rails” - all in red .


As they haven't seen me in person, they figured out that a RoR sign will get them a real smile or a nice wave and it sure did. Nice plan G&K.

On our 30 minutes drive from the airport, we discussed a lot of topics regarding Jordan, the ICT industry, our journeys, the economy. I had a good time. From what we discussed; Jordan is a melting pot with lots of people coming from all around. Palestine, Iraq, the Gulf, Egypt, and others. Jordan has no real natural resources, and hence, the economy is based on services, and seemingly few industries. According to G&K and from what I saw, a good deal of money is being invested in the real estate business, with construction sites all over Amman (with some mega projects). I later also learnt from Ahmed that it is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

I checked into the Radisson SAS hotel (very nice with cosy rooms, courtesy of toot) - placed my bags - and headed with G&K for a nice dinner. G&K were so kind to tour-guide me, but I was having a traffic information overload - I thought I needed a map, but guess it wouldn't have helped !. We arrived at Faroujna, ordered a wonderful barbeque dinner with lots of apetizers and salads (Tabboula, Fattoush, Thomeyya) and digged in.

We held off the talk in business plans, but we warmed up with a wide array of discussions; itoot, the team, the web, Basecamp, Java, languages, Olivoice, AJAX, education, culture, business, Bibliotheca Alexandria, you name it.

Today felt more of a drum roll, with all the anticipation and enthusiasm. Tomorrow we'll have our first meeting at SYNTAX digital where I'll meet (Almost) all the members. I hope tomorrow would be a good day. UPDATE: It sure was.

After boarding the Royal Jordanian (RJ) plane heading for Amman, and while waiting for the take-off we were asked by the stewardess to hand in all what we have of, not knives, not nail clippers, not sprays, not cork screws, not shoes, but rather hand in all of our Guavas!

Some people have boarded the plane with some guava seeds, and as per RJ, the Guava aroma causes irritation to the Pilot. I have to agree that it doesn't feel right taking food on board of planes, especially smelly one. The aroma was so daunting that some passengers started to sneeze themselves. Yet, this was the strangest of all air travel etiquette I've ever experienced.

Anyways, RJ was kind enough to hand the passengers their guavas once we landed. So, for all those guava lovers who can't part with their favourite fruit - don't fly Jordanian

Technorati Tags: guava, royal jordanian, jordan

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Following the wonderful post at svn for the “most beautiful thing”, I felt the urge to wander in the opposite direction.

What's the Ugliest thing you've seen lately ?

Feel free to have multiple replies.

Technorati Tags: ugly, opinions, poll, svn, beautiful
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While talking to a good friend last night, we came up with a new DD acronym. Introducing the SDD or “Stability Driven Development” :-). Although, it was meant to funnily describe how some people regard their careers in the context of their responsibilities, the same idea can be used to come up with really genuine DD names:

• BDD: Boss Driven Development (Use your insightful pointy haired).
• GDD: Guinea-pigs Driven Development (guinea pigs filled applications).
• HDD: Half-assed-software Driven Development (does quality really matter?).
• jWDD: Just-Working Driven Development (it submits forms).
• DDD: Dreams Driven Development (or Day-Dreaming DD).
• PDD: Picture Driven Development (making the software that would put you in the picture)
• ADD: All-Features-You-Can-Cram-Into-One-Application Driven Development (need I say more?)

note to self: It might be good time to come up with a DD generator

This is NOT my take on the value of TDD, BDD and other methodologies to any process. It's just my lame way of reviving this “almost” dead blog (these words will sure help in my Google ranking).

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This link shows how things would look like for my home city if sea level rises ONLY 1 m. Although, most of the city will not be affected, yet, it seems that It has turned into an island, which would definitely make it uninhabitable. What is our geovernment doing??? What is the world doing??? Hellooooo.

The mashup was prepared by Alex Tingle, with elevation data provided by NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. One of the most helpful mashups I've even seen.

via Baheyeldin Dynasty

What a strange building! It seemingly has some rooms at the ground floor, but, those stairs lead to …. nothing.

I'm thinking of starting a competition for the sake of identifying its purpose. I pass by the mystery twice a day and every time my curiosity rise. Is it a statue? Does it have an industrial or functional purpose? Is it a sign of the corruption?

I've asked the “what-is-that” questions to more than 20 fine engineers and none have given an answer. Not even a suggestion.

I don't know why, but I'm always reminded of M. C. Escher's Relativity whenever I look at it. Oh my God!! Could it really be that? An attempt to model the masterpiece? After all, similar attempts have been carried out before.

So, if you think you know what that building does, please, spare time to put a bunch of wonderers out of their misery.

On a different note: There are some good images of plain awkwardness at Only-In-Egypt. I like the About post.