Supposedly a Geek

I got the cryptex!

2010-11-24T18:35:00.001+02:00

Although it is old, I saw it hanging in my driver and I remembered the movie "Angels and Demons".

And yeah "I got the Cryptex".

This post is to thank Hana Zain for she is the one who bought me the DVD with its marvelous collection as a birthday present.

Supposedly a Geek!

2010-11-10T23:08:00.001+02:00

Howdy!

When I started blogging technology stuff i used this template, and actually this same blog but under the URL : "http://fse-mos3abof.blogspot.com" where "FSE" stood for "Free Software Engineering"!

Now I have grown up, and my realization of "FSE" has grown up too. My passion for technology went gigantic and my tendency to be a geek grew by time. Thus I decided to get back the glorious days of tech blogging where my non-tech or geek allergic friends won't feel annoyed!

I am Mosab Ahmad, supposedly a geek and a great believer in Open Source and the lessons learned from its principal, and a person who thinks Engineering is the science of applying science for the well being of humanity, who dedicates his life to apply the software world rules and concepts in real life.

If you are looking for my personal blog, you should go here.

See you guys here, a lot.

"Bank Masr" security exposure!

2009-09-14T14:27:00.000+02:00

Today I and my colleague Eslam were at Bank Masr because he was doing something there. Not only the bank looks poor, in my opinion, but also the screen on the wall got me stunned!

The screen was displaying a windows desktop with a folder minimized to the task bar and a window of internet exploerer displaying a page containing currency rates.

Apart from the ugliness of that page, the problem was they were showing the internal IP address the browser is using!!!

http://192.168.111.162/currencies/la2yenfa3.htm

The page name itself "la2yenfa3" is the Egyptian Arabic slang to say "no it is possible"! It was obvious two members at the IT were arguing whether they can show this page or not!

I couldn't take a pic with my mobile at the time, but will the next time i go there.

Oh did i mention that there was a warning too on the taskbar?!

The email i sent to Microsoft

2009-06-17T15:26:00.000+03:00

Yesterday was a day of hell to me, because Internet Explorer deserves to be renamed to "internet Exploder!"...

I was working on the project and everything was going just fine, it looked very neat on firefox, opera and epiphany web browsers, with no errors or annoying distortions of any kind, it even passed the test of the w3c validator.

But when i was giving my client a status report, he told me the project is messed up, i opened an IE installation i have at my linux machine and everything was really upside down, with no obvious reason why it went like this!!

The client was upset, and he has the right to be so. So I spent all today trying to fix what IE destroyed. I really hate their browser, it is even not self-compatible, when you deal with IE the version differs so much that you have to make hacks in your CSS and HTML code for each and every version of them! How stupid that the same broswer renders html in a totally different way just because you are using another version!!

Out of frustration i issued a ticket to Microsoft's customer support as following:

Subject : Please stop releasing internet explorer

Message : Dear Sir/Madam, you don't know how much i am frustrated and filled with anger now because of your piece of software named Internet Explorer, I am in a very bad situation that is about to cost me a lot in my job because you don't care about web standards, and because of the unpredicted behaviour of your IE.

I please ask you seriously, and really you can't feel how much i feel badly inside, to stop releasing any further versions, stop shipping it, remove it from your websites and ask people not to use it anymore.

Thank you for your time, and your time only, but please stop using that time to make our lives like hell..

--------------------

Today came a reply from an employee there :

Dear Mr. Mosab,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Technical support. Kindly be informed that your complaint has been reported to the responsible team.

Your feedback is highly appreciated.

----
Notes :
(1) The image is taken from the website "we hate ie".
(2) IE seems to make problems everywhere, read this article about the situation between Microsoft an EU.

inbox 404!

2009-05-25T17:14:00.001+03:00

What would be your feeling when you find that your inbox contains "404" unread messages?!

Caffeine Code Cycle

2009-03-12T11:52:00.000+02:00

Here is the Caffeine Code Cycle^* in the life of a software engineer or a programmer :
---
* I created this using the firefox pencil addon.

Originally posted at my website.

Adhere : first open source mobile advertising platform

2008-12-14T13:48:00.000+02:00

Citex Software (then company i work for now) has launched beta release of adhere -the first open source mobile advertising platform- on its website. You can download the product, or post any support issues on the adhere support forum.

For more info about Citex Sopftware Ltd. visit : http://www.citexsoftware.com

Long Live open source :)

originally written on my website.

my dual monitor at work

2008-11-06T15:43:00.000+02:00

Hi all,
This is my dual monitor at work, my laptop is Amilo (Fujitsu-Siemens), running Debian Etch. The setup is made using nvidia-settings.

Chrome's sad tab

2008-09-18T19:50:00.001+02:00

This is what Google's Chrome display when a tab goes bad! I really loved it so much (click on image to enlarge).

Note: This is my work pc, it is running windows -which i don't like- so I installed a Mac Theme.

Good Bye IOL..

2008-09-10T08:30:00.000+02:00

Dear IOL* members,

It has been nearly 4 years now in IOL in different positions and departments. I believe it is time for me now to move, I should have done this at least a year ago, but I didn't in three different occasions because of many factors, most importantly 20at's** benefit. These years meant a lot to me, I learned many things really, but I believe I have now reached a saturation point, where my stay will not be of acceptable benefits for both IOL and me, in fact it even may do nothing but hold me still instead of going forward. Thus I decided a while ago considering opportunities that come along.

Today at nearly 4:00 pm i received an offer, that I accepted, from a software company named "Citex Software" to work there as a software engineer. The offer satisfies many needs at this phase of my career basically and my life as well. On top of them is the need of new and fresh career blood, working with a young team that understands each other and can really think of things differently and effectively, a place where I can learn a lot of new things and a better financial level. All these factors exist in this opportunity along with others, so I am accepting the offer. I should start there right after The Eid, that means 2 weeks and a half from now.

Despite the fact that there were some issues inside the company that could be dealt with better, I really find it hard to take such a decision and will always remember IOL was like home to me. It is the nature of things anyway; people leave their homes when they are grown up and choose their own way. Thank you all for everything, and yes I think this is a Goodbye. Hope you all the best from all my heart.

Best wishes ever,
Mosab Ahmad.

---
* IOL = islamonline.net, and media international company
** 20at = 20at.com, may main project i am was working on, i built it from scratch.

Debian Etch Tips (1) : version control your /etc

2008-08-26T00:20:00.000+03:00

A good practice I found useful is to version control your /etc, because you might edit something and forget why you did so later on, or even want to revert to a previous situation.

In order to do this you have two options, either save a backup manually for each file before editing -which is to me a horrible nightmare-, or use a VC system.

If you chose option 2 welcome aboard :), -option 1 is welcome too but he will not find useful here-.

I have used three VC systems before, CVS, SVN and git. The first two are great and I like them really, but only git could “git” my attention and passion. I started using it on my laptop and it works like magic.

Let's start

(1)Installation :

you have two options, either using the prepackaged “git”, or compile it from source. Both are good.

- Using packages :
Open a terminal and issue the following command as root:

apt-get install git-core

- Using the source :

mkdir ~/git-core
cd ~/git-core

Now go to http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/ and choose a version, for example :

wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.6.5.tar.gz
tar -xzvf http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.5.6.5.tar.gz
cd git-1.5.6.5
./configure
make
make install

and you are done :)

(2) Checking installation :
to check your installation simply run the following command :

git -- version

This is supposed to output something similar to : “git version 1.x.x.x” where x is correspondent to your version.

(3) Initiating a Git repository in /etc :
as root run the following commands :

cd /etc
git init

you are supposed to see something like : “Initialized empty Git repository in .git/ ”

git add .

Don't forget the dot “.” in the previous command.

git commit

then the default text editor will appear, write some comment like “This is the initial state of /etc”, save and exit and voila, you just version controlled your /etc :)

Practical Example:
Suppose that you wanted to add some lines to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf, and then found some conflicts with any other paramters apache has set, and you want to revert to the previous state. Here is how you do it using git (Note: you must have initiated a git repository as in step (3)):

cd /etc/apache2/
git add httpd.conf

now open the httpd.conf with your favorite editor -mine is emacs- and don't forget to open the editor as root, add your lines, let's say something like :

<virtualhost 3="">
ServerAdmin webmaster@host.foo.com
DocumentRoot /www/docs/host.foo.com
ServerName host.foo.com
ErrorLog logs/host.foo.com-error_log
TransferLog logs/host.foo.com-access_log
</virtualhost>

save the file, then run this command :

git commit

the default system editor will appear, so you are supposed to write a note to remind yourself why you did this commit, for example “Adding a virtual host to test git”.

Later on you discover that you no more need these lines in your httpd file and you want to revert to the previous version, then you have two options,

Option A : from command line
Option B : from GUI

both are similar, but let's explain a little thingy first, every time you make a commit, the git gives it an SHA1 code which servers as a serial number -let's call it this way for now :)-, this code is unique, which means there can't be two commits in the same repository having the same SHA1 code. All we need to get back to a specific version is to know it's SHA1. So let's start :

Option A : from command line :
go to the repository directory and type the following commands :

cd /etc/
git log

this will output something like :

commit 032ba6817b147adcb169f683dfdda5028b503bd8
Author: mosab ahmad <mosab>
Date: Sat Aug 23 00:32:56 2008 +0300

testing multiple files and pathcing :)

commit 6e1f5afef0cf0f6c10eec90679193b1fedc68ff5
Author: mosab ahmad <mosab>
Date: Sat Aug 23 00:31:42 2008 +0300

patch 1

commit 5357c214ac7deac555720bd62e8c285e6ec02389
Author: mosab ahmad <mosab>
Date: Fri Aug 22 23:47:53 2008 +0300

this is the third commit to this project.

this is somehow not user-friendly, for the ones who are not familiar with terminal. But it provides us with each commit's SHA1, so what we should do is :

git checkout 0b1016862478c628f9c22d2fb3da24d5f6c066a6

Of course replace the string with the proper SHA1 string you want to revert to.

Option B : From GUI

for those who are afraid of terminal -although the best way to use git is from terminal- the Git project provides a GUI tool that eases the navigation of a repository to start it enter into the repository directory and type :

cd /etc/
gitk

a GUI program like this will appear :

you will find many useful info here, but what we need for now is parts (1) and (2) marked on the snapshot.

part (1) contains the date and creator of each commit, and when you click on one of them part (2) shows its corresponding SHA1 ID. copy and paste this ID and issue the following command as in previous step :

git checkout feeb0b6388c36d8c244c957886dcb63e6fd5112f

open the file again; congratulations you got back to the version you wanted.
happy gitting everybody :)

-----
any additions, modifications or suggestions are very very welcome at : root@mos3abof.com

GIT..

2008-08-23T19:37:00.000+03:00

just started using git, it is great.
go try it all of you,
bye CVS and SVN,
i finally found my soul mate :)

How big is the internet?!

2008-07-26T00:56:00.000+03:00

I was also wondering about this, till Google Gave me the answer!

Check this post posted at the official Google blog by Jesse Alpert & Nissan Hajaj, Software Engineers, Web Search Infrastructure Team.

from now on walk in the internet carefully.

WTF!

2008-07-23T23:46:00.000+03:00

Ok guys, that's it!!

it is enough,
it really is ENOUGH!

you know?!
i am fed up with the idea that here in Egypt anybody who knows a little bit about programming can easily call himself a programmer, and everybody else will just start dealing accordingly..

but what drives me nuts,
and i mean really NUTS,
is someone who just made 10 calls for echo(), and used mysql_query() a couple times and calls himself, without any hesitation and with a very big amount of self-confidence a php developer!

[[ wikimania 2008 ]]

2008-07-20T04:47:00.000+03:00

Just arrived home at Cairo from Alexandria after three days in wikimania 2008,

The event was great at all levels, and i have a lot to tell, but right now i just need some sleep.

see you when i wake up*.

for now i will leave you with a photo i took with jimmy wales

---
* citation needed!

debian and ubuntu dual boot

2008-05-16T18:37:00.000+03:00

i finally decided to put another system besides my beloved debian,
yesterday i installed a dual boot (debian-ubuntu) system on my fujitsu siemens laptop.

Grandpa and Grandson i call both distros :)

long live GNU.

code - caffeine relationship!

2008-03-14T14:59:00.000+02:00

We have to admit!

"Programmers are tools to convert caffeine into CODE!"*

while(caffeine) {
developer::Code(caffeine);
caffeine -- ;
}

------
* a quote i found somwhere in the internet..

my public PGP keys

2008-01-23T20:05:00.000+02:00

These keys expire at Mon 27 Jan 2014.

hi all, i decided to digitally sign and in some cases encrypt my outgoing messages, so here are my public keys you will need to either verify that i am the one who sent the email, or to decrypt my encrypted messages..

My mosab [dot] ahmad [at] gmail [dot] com key :


-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)

mQGiBEmAZWYRBACdA0/jfkhI4UpD7+Yn4kNLa7r8GxEfTXyswUmOqzi4gwU5JlBY
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Yp2L8irMZId1hV3WGIZKND+/8nZGhK+uwO8KYAACqVihQvHN7WMr/y9LUwCgqNiF
/XssgQgedR+8S72zfGKG3wUD/3VmCb97kvMhhgpQ5fu+MVtzzcgE9mg4r1z7rhs+
zsqvMZsvOQctjHR9YHu8HDpG/Nl2WaYlviSn/AxP2kRbi0SVmRZJ22S4HBzZs646
b7QCROVTOfA4Nc5SBlajb1qc4aR+qL0TgvtqD9ANRdsnQXxNBcaSWi5GQnuCh2XW
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/wYsdJCgbeicvHNk6viMDxQvwiffDP/gyFkVyUkOMXQuvKCkyZdUlkRTBkhfaLMa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=1F93
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

My root [at] mos3abof [dot] com email's key :


-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
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GwMFCQlmAYAGCwkIBwMCBBUCCAMEFgIDAQIeAQIXgAAKCRCkOnjM/fBZ181wAJ9r
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1RAEAJsGmcSe1csh0IZKmLuRBTh531Ikd1cP1Vu+G3J8BDqt9jzzVd/cLAjaTaNP
3nKZJZy9+Sx3hUxxPTxr+oQk/ELkUWdCNf6e/gn7TMmb0HHH3BTpl1FJ/tbFgP2F
algHDiulvKzXvjV3DPWrTaZd4FUxU/lGuJSrGq/LYcxKqXcrAAMFA/9ftRu1SGRD
e2PrqRkzYDvQBV8Bhccgm+x4ocXsINsLoQVcHzBsGrUxAh5uQ0beucBOo4c6QP0/
/MDlogIm9BjB1ezfNRvdzBOzAT6puw3/JWEeVxlBnhe65ldzz96neNR6YpCABdvC
/skNmop4U8XVqZ7d0DPu6DShRI2HH5QHQIhPBBgRAgAPBQJJgGTVAhsMBQkJZgGA
AAoJEKQ6eMz98FnXouMAmwe76aYQsWNfJ1giO88sIqha+5xeAJ4vFirEmk5k3uMu
mlicfQ9aWXA9eg==
=jnqm
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

My mahmad [at] citexsoftware [dot] com email's key :


-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)

mQGiBEmAQoQRBACbD69Y20QEBL4ms9LFBiERh+cv/LY+NOMUsBjTshicJ3XlsBio
257DQt4O8wPEVB30sT6HOnX1rVQM9sb5lnf+T1VXXaTMW6mPdo4g72z8GyurKyRN
1qzwBIo/bGc6fspYjzDidkz2y3weoSJ17mHf/ew4o1QTNFXKc9hT9q2GGwCgy9b+
lqcsWBLiwSqyMZR6C3H2h4kD/iFGVarB4dFz+7dCwisDiB07yplUfxz2oim2axrB
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5qX38NlLDWWFgfnadUtGu33VsdJMJiEezGiCLPHv9tT9Z5eaRev3VTEnZvlioMG2
vYZ0BACF8XsJxvHVRCQQ8JSbpOofIDbtaVAvOwaxoqcJ/QK24zBdlSEXVgWvKmmO
sc2cBAQu9DNq3MTEu2MZQyETxA1IkHXcnnUE56eB4YmOhFv6W4QReHu9TO+tvU/f
G9ssvIEvcTnG7fVbIu1HuYcw97pw8tw5ZiNduGi8Nt443mUhCLQmbW9zYWIgYWht
YWQgPG1haG1hZEBjaXRleHNvZnR3YXJlLmNvbT6IZgQTEQIAJgUCSYBChAIbIwUJ
CWYBgAYLCQgHAwIEFQIIAwQWAgMBAh4BAheAAAoJEOZqLtTGfeRy9OkAoL/FymBw
SqXpKmTTKDywd3X01am9AJ9IANn1JLBI9UsWt61BNjzp89FajrkCDQRJgEKEEAgA
4dLxzSZazrMoVptCn46uFzssf3ud8gOGNyQqboTp4SPnB7ZTx50Cu8QsnvvyiG7x
AXFz86JC4Z65W/Qw1iKoYH+dpx8xf+xGSHKK5rbUIM3FsQMwp0mO0QbEDYj/bWBk
PrGnrEh97K99LocwGsu+aUXyRC9j1S2dEPQ3HzcDK4leKwVyeubrjBgkLOnczaVC
H4c3foPEnQnKKyL57kRh5pu+Hnh/UsmxQY3B+U0s8H6csJzhkUhgciqxy69vr/z8
G328JmYs69Qp0kDYpvpQrLF/wU/vfFYBoxBa03OkPToDSjFuSam4kQVQ4VJgHB2T
RLOgH3VtVTlkRJyRoJaPCwADBQf9EHp3Z3fXxeUN8b6P7so2LRn74BbhU0lSlDrI
zHDOcy7xO9ZDKl5x1zov4RlvCOEB/R29nUQv+Q8AuXWd2XLwm3gx/je2mIoGPJEs
0i4rCA+sOBDI1W38XlHyF9bb0qofTfDSoKQvXk96oKWsEDN+3MSDJMk7HQldpn5U
UpHGq+N5RrLbiNjibfBvhq/rC+q7S83quaTWQEIH03hvePFIPl8D8tveI8xh5RRv
fiC4zW5cRwFKe8aoIb6Qd6NIjnMQYlZNJC2Kp+lSu7Eg4uECAhVerkqfpbvO4MOq
3k0YseLqD2cKnQ/Fla4Hh6rHMTxFkrD9VGgWcCbESKTwiaEYb4hPBBgRAgAPBQJJ
gEKEAhsMBQkJZgGAAAoJEOZqLtTGfeRyYQUAn2I949cvNN517hJIttzVPIak0Ie9
AJ9yVMlUpA3op//c5GwROtv+1pvXzQ==
=HVK5
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

These keys expire at Mon 27 Jan 2014.

youtube scalibility issues..

2007-12-02T03:11:00.000+02:00

a video by a member of the youtube team -now part of Google- about some of the scalability challenges they faced,
enjoy..

mosab means :

2007-09-28T00:56:00.000+02:00

this is what i got when i tried the "name analyzer" application in the facebook

Mosab = Magnetic, Outstanding, Special, Artistic, Blessed

a very dear friend told me "i think it is true".

msn is not at my sight!

2007-09-08T04:08:00.000+02:00

My God,

i can't access my hotmail account, it seems to be a problem with the ISP i am with (click the above image to enlarge).

have a look at the traceroute output below :

debian:~# traceroute hotmail.com
traceroute: Warning: hotmail.com has multiple addresses; using 64.4.33.7
traceroute to hotmail.com (64.4.33.7), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 SpeedTouch.lan (10.0.0.138) 0.379 ms 0.361 ms 0.351 ms
2 MRIUTIA-R01C-GZ-EG (163.121.170.112) 27.716 ms 24.452 ms 26.575 ms
3 host-163.121.183.213.tedata.net (163.121.183.213) 26.312 ms 24.540 ms 26.547 ms
4 host-163.121.184.137.tedata.net (163.121.184.137) 26.326 ms 24.589 ms 26.515 ms
5 host-163.121.184.61.tedata.net (163.121.184.61) 26.677 ms 24.782 ms 26.326 ms
6 pal6-telecom-egypt-1-eg.pal.seabone.net (213.144.181.73) 130.602 ms 179.993 ms 66.483 ms
7 ash2-new11-racc1.new.seabone.net (195.22.216.225) 164.280 ms 165.612 ms 171.564 ms
8 microsoft-2-us-ash2.ash.seabone.net (195.22.206.26) 166.075 ms 164.958 ms 165.558 ms
9 ge-7-3-0-56.ash-64cb-1a.ntwk.msn.net (207.46.41.49) 168.932 ms 170.165 ms 168.947 ms
10 ge-0-0-0-0.ash-64cb-1b.ntwk.msn.net (207.46.41.34) 170.507 ms 171.616 ms 172.729 ms
11 ge-6-2-0-0.pao-64cb-1b.ntwk.msn.net (207.46.33.213) 244.855 ms 244.563 ms 247.234 ms
12 ge-0-1-0-0.bay-64c-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.63.113) 256.351 ms 253.595 ms 256.614 ms
13 ge-0-0-0-0.bay-64c-1a.ntwk.msn.net (207.46.40.81) 245.059 ms 244.809 ms 244.832 ms
14 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 248.604 ms 248.244 ms 251.546 ms
15 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 248.280 ms 245.227 ms 244.852 ms
16 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 248.608 ms 250.009 ms 250.074 ms
17 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 249.322 ms 244.450 ms 245.610 ms
18 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 247.845 ms 249.774 ms 250.016 ms
19 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 248.293 ms 244.671 ms 244.863 ms
20 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 250.506 ms 249.757 ms 252.010 ms
21 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 246.350 ms 245.203 ms 244.941 ms
22 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 257.940 ms 249.730 ms 251.304 ms
23 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 247.012 ms 244.519 ms 245.568 ms
24 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 249.772 ms 249.644 ms 252.047 ms
25 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 246.307 ms 244.495 ms 245.141 ms
26 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 252.877 ms 249.436 ms 254.056 ms
27 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 244.539 ms 245.061 ms 244.955 ms
28 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 256.549 ms 249.712 ms 251.494 ms
29 msnhotmail.com (64.4.33.7) 248.328 ms 244.901 ms 244.835 ms
30 po50-570.bay-6nx-hot-1b.ntwk.msn.net (64.4.33.3) 250.016 ms 251.329 ms 256.750 ms
debian:~#

i bought "me" a present!

2007-09-06T00:32:00.000+03:00

in the last period i was very very overloaded..
my load in work reached 800% and after trying to get it down it became 600% according to our project managers calculations!!

i didn't have time to take care of me, and i suddenly found nothing is worth leaving me alone! i suddenly discovered that i forgot to live.

today i bought me a gift.

i bought me the "mos3abof.com" domain

and within a month i will make me an online "geeky garage"..

What famous leader am i ?

2007-09-02T01:03:00.000+03:00

i went into an e-test about "What Famous Leader Are you? "and the result came up with this famous photo and this sentence :

"You are the leader pot smokers emulate. You are Che Guevara. You have your own revolutionary arty style. Dying tragically on a mountain appeals to you."

written on the image.

and you, What Famous Leader Are You?

switched to Debian

2007-07-14T15:37:00.001+03:00

after a long time using SUSE, i switched to Debian, and till now i am satisfied with the decision.
many Arabic issues were solved in open office and the synpatic and apt-get are awesome..
just one thing is left, installing KDE, coz i like it more than GNOME, and the problem is i don't have enough time to do so..

but anyway, i am really satisfied with the decision and the results are so far great :)

update (15-7-2007) : installed KDE yester-night :)
i love the debian DVDs, i now know for sure it was worth the time downloading them

----
other distros i used : mandrake, redhat, slackware, fedora, centos, ubuntu and SUSE.

i should be an engineer!

2007-06-12T00:47:00.000+03:00

i went through an e-test under the topic : "What College Major Are You/Should You Be?",

and the result came :

"Your major should be Engineering. Logic is your friend. With enough work, you can find a solution to anything... Unless it involves dating or parties."

thanks brainfall!!

this community!

2007-06-09T22:03:00.000+03:00

"this community has a lot of BUGS, it needs PEER TO PEER DEBUGGING!!!"

-- a quote by Mosab Ahmad (me :) )

----
note: this is the first time in my life i find any error message from any microsoft product of any use at all!

freelativity...(3)

2007-06-09T02:02:00.000+03:00

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor it cannot save the few who are rich."

--John F. Kennedy

another brick in the wall

2007-05-21T04:09:00.000+03:00

these days i am having exams, the educational system here sucks!!
bilieve me...

all i can remember now is the Pink Floyd's song Another Brick in the Wall :

lyrics:

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

We don't need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

"Wrong, Do it again!"
"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"
"You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!"

This part of my life...

2007-05-16T17:24:00.000+03:00

this part of my life i call "finding answers"...

(inspired by "The Pursuit of Happyness")..

Freelativity...(2)!

2007-05-06T12:14:00.000+03:00

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

a quote I don't remember where I found, but I love it.

How to protect your open project

2007-03-02T05:35:00.000+02:00

An interesting presentation made by two google engineers about how to protect your open source project from poisonous people..

enjoy:

Translation into Arabic:

عرض شيق ومفيد جدا قدمه مهندسان يعملان في جوجل عن كيفية الحفاظ على مشروعك مفتوح المصدر من أناس غير مرغوب في تصرفاتها

Gmail's new feature

2007-02-01T02:08:00.000+02:00

I noticed a new feature was added to Gmail these days..
As shown in the image (click to enlarge) if you recive any attachemsnt that matches Google's "Docs and Spreadsheets" service, a link to open this attachement directly in the latter service is provided besides the "view" link and before the "download" option..

I really was happy, specialy that I am using a new Linux distribution "SUSE" and some of my firends send me arabic word files that I can't read directly now on my desktop for some configuration issues, so I open them directly on my Google Account.

translation to Arabic:

كما نرى جميعا في الصورة، فإن خدمة البريد الالكتروني الخاصة بجوجل قامت بإضافة خاصية صغيرة جدا ولكنها مفيدة.. وفعندما تصلك رسالة بها أحد المرفقات التي تصلح للتصفح من خلال خدمة مستندات جوجل.. فإنه يتم توفير رابط لفتحها مباشرة هناك..

وحيث أنني حولت نظام التشغيل الخاص بي كليا إلى لينوكس، فقد كنت أواجه بعض المشاكل في قراءة الملفات العربية التي يرسلها لي أصدقائي مرفقة مع رسائلهم الالكترونية.. أما مع هذه الخدمة البسيطة وفرت علي الكثير

Freelativity...(1)!

2007-01-31T18:26:00.000+02:00

- I adore Open Source Culture
- But it is hard to learn, use, understand ... etc!
- I believe this is a very cheap price for FREEDOM!!

translation to Arabic:

- أنا بأعشق المفهوم اللي اتبنى عليه المصادر المفتوحة
- أيوة بس المصادر المفتوحة صعب جدا تتعلمها، وتشتغل بيهاو الألعاب و الـ.... و.... و .... الخ
- أنا شايف ده ثمن بسيط جدا مقابل "حريتي"!!!

When Google is down...

2007-01-24T21:25:00.000+02:00

I really feel Internet Judgement Day has begun when I see the shown message (or any similiar) on any of Google's Services pages...

Google please keep well and healthy..

Long Live Google...

clicke here for picture enlargement..

translation to arabic:

عندما أرى هذه الرسالة أو ما يشابهها على أي صفحة من صفحات جوجل أشعر أن قيامة الانترنت قامت.. ويتسارع نبض قلبي وتتوقف أنفاسي..

كان الله في عونك يا جوجل...

يعيش جوجل ... يعيش

------
* The photo is taken using KSnapshot on SUSE Linux version 10.1.

I am "Green Lantern"!

2007-01-02T06:09:00.000+02:00

I took the geeks' exam of favorite hero at www.thesuperheroquiz.com, and the result came up that : "I am Hot-headed. I have strong will power and a good imagination.", and that will much fit "Green Lantern"..

and here are the results :

You are Green Lantern

Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

translation to Arabic:

كل المبرمجين المهووسين عادة يحبون القصص المصورة وعادة ما يكون لديهم بطل مفضل، لكن موقع www.thesuperheroquiz.com يحدد أي هؤلاء الأبطال أقرب لشخصيتك ونتيجتي معروضة بالأعلى
سارع أنت أيضا بأداء الاختبار

WikiQatar !

2007-01-01T19:26:00.000+02:00

Slashdot.org reported that Qatar has been blocked from editing the great Wikipedia anonymously!!

no more comments to say, but "Shame on us Arabs!!!"

the arabic wikipedia is the weakest and most useless among its sisters, not that only is enough, yet we want to get blocked by further misbehaving!!

update (2nd January 2006) :

visit this link as it contains an important reportage further explaining the situation and includes also an announcement of Jimbo Wales (wikipedia founder)...

translation into Arabic:

قرأت اليوم تقريرا على موقع slashdot.org مفاده أن الويكيبيديا اتخذت قرارا بمنع المقيمين بدولة قطر من تعديل الويكيبديا بدون وجود حساب سابق في الموسوعة...

حقا لا تعليق، لا يكفينا فقط أن الويكيبيديا العربية هي الأسوأ بين أخواتها، ولكننا أيضا نتمادى حتى وصل الامر لحجبنا من التعامل...

تحديث (2 يناير 2006) :

رجاء زوروا هذا الرابط لأنه يحتوي على توضيحات هامة، وبه كذلك تصريح للسيد جيمبو ويلز مؤسس الويكيبيديا...

Stefan Esser resigns from PHP security team!

2006-12-14T13:51:00.000+02:00

Heise security, is reporting the resignation of Stefan Esser from the php security team response
from the article:

"Stefan Esser, PHP security specialist and member of the official PHP Security Response Team has, he says, had enough - in his blog he has announced his immediate resignation from the PHP Security Response Team. He states that he has various reasons for doing so, the most important of which is that his attempt to make PHP safer "from the inside" is futile. According to Esser, as soon as you try to criticise PHP security, you become persona-non-grata in the security team. In addition many of his suggestions were ignored because the developers considered Esser's choice of words, too abrasive. He says that he had stopped counting the number of times he was called a traitor when he published a bug report on a vulnerability in PHP."

and:

"The disagreement between Esser and the PHP team seems to be particularly inflamed by the matter of how best to improve the security of PHP"

and here is the announcement Stefen wrote on php security blog...

Gmail mail fetcher!

2006-12-10T23:06:00.000+02:00

"Uh Oh, Gmail Just Got Perfect" is the topic of the great news I read today on the great TechCrunch..

The news in brief is that now google has provided you with a "MAIL FETCHER" which means you can now read all your email accounts just right inside gmail!

translation to Arabic:

أصبح بإمكانك الآن قراءة كل رسائلك التي تصل لبريدك الالكتروني على أي حساب تابع لأي شركة طالما تمتلك حسابا علىبريد جوجل الالكتروني!!

فقط تابعوا هذا الرابط...

OScar in Cerebrosus World

2006-12-10T20:38:00.000+02:00

My dear friend Ahmed_HR -as we call hima @ work- made a great post about the OScar project (an open sourced car) in his "Cerebrosus World"...

Read it here...

translation to Arabic:

أحمد عبدالله (من الموارد المائية ... قصدي البشرية عندنا في الشركة) كتب تدوينة جامدة جدا في مدونته "عالم مجنون" عن مشروع سيارة مفتوحة المصدر...

زوروا هذا الرابط تجدوا ما يسركم...

20at's Database Server Down! :(

2006-12-04T20:41:00.000+02:00

In a surprising manner, our database server suddenly had too many connections and went down around 8:14 pm (according to time in Cairo) causing a technical error in our site www.20at.com ..

I am now working on a solution with the support team of the hosting company..

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT RIGHT NOW!

update - (Tue 05-12-2006) :

Site is back today at dawn, but still we are dealing with consequences of the problem..

We really missed you, and we are doing our best not to let this happen again..

translation into Arabic:

بشكل مفاجئ تماما تعرض موقعنا (عشرينات) لعطل تقني في مزود قاعدة البيانات حوالي الثامنة و أربعة عشر دقيقة بتوقيت القاهرة متسببا في وقف تصفح الموقع..

وأنا الآن أعمل على إيجاد حل مع فريق الدعم التقني للشركة المضيفة

نحتاج إلى دعائكم بشدة الآن..

تحديث - (الثلاثاء 5 ديسمبر 2006):

عاد الموقع للعمل الحمدلله فجر اليوم، ولازلنا نستكمل إجراءاتنا التقنية الاحتياطية لتفادي حدوث هذا مرة أخرى..

افتقدناكم جدا ..وسنبذل قصارى جهدنا لكي لا يتكرر هذا الموقف..

Psiphon is now available

2006-12-02T18:39:00.000+02:00

I wrote before (on 22/05/2006) an article on 20at.com named "Firewall الصين العظيم" or "The Great Firewall of China"..

This article was dealing with a human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, called "Psiphon"...

"Psiphon" idea was about how to allow citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor.

And "Psiphon" was mainly targeting the censorship of internet applied by the CHINEESE governoment when I first learned about it..

"Psiphon" is now ready for download, actually since 1st of Dec 2006..

I didn't blog this before now because I didn't have time to, but now voila!

here is a cute flash demonstration for the idea it is based on..

Cheers every human rights interested person on the Planet.. :)

-----
related links - news on :

1) BBC website
2) New York times website
3) macleans dot ca
4) The Star dot com
5) The Globe and Mail dot com

translation to Arabic :

Psiphon جاهز للاستخدام
كتبت من قبل مقالا تحت عنوان "Firewall الصين العظيم" تم نشره على موقع عشرينات بتاريخ (22/5/2006) ..

تحدثت في هذا الموضوع عن مشروع تطوير برمجي يحمل اهتماما عميقا بحقوق الإنسان يتم تطويره آنذاك في مختبرات ومعامل the Citizen Lab التابعة لجامعة تورنتو في كندا، وحمل المشروع اسم "سايفون" أو Psiphon..

وفكرته ببساطة أن يقوم المواطنون القاطنون لدول لا تتدخل حكوماتها بفرض رقابة على الانترنت بمساعدة زملائهم ممن يعانون من مثل هذه الرقابة على الوصول لما يريدون على الشبكة الدولية.. وفك هذا الحصار!

ويستهدف المشروع بشكل أساسي وواضح وصريح الجدار العازل التي فرضته الحكومة الصينية على شعبها، وإن كان لا يزال صالحا مع أي سوار حديدي فرض لسبب أو لآخر في أي دولة في العالم..

الجديد الآن أن "Psiphon" جاهز للتحميل منذ اليوم الأول للشهر الحالي (الأول من ديسمبر 2006) ،

وهذا الرابط به شرح مصور لطيف لفكرة عمله..

روابط متعلقة :

1) مقالي على موقع عشرينات، وعلى مدونتي الأخرى
2) الموقع الرسمي لـPsiphon
3) موقع the Citizen Lab

تحديث 16 - 12 - 2006:

4) مقالة بعنوان : "برمجية جديدة تتفادى رقابة الحكومات على الإنترنت" على موقع الجزيرة

Bye Google Answers :(

2006-11-29T22:01:00.000+02:00

Google Blog is reporting that google answers will receive no more questions by the end of this year,
But the answers hosted there already will be left available to us..

Bye Google Answers, we will miss you

I love google so much, I admire it. It really is my best friend on the web.

translation into Arabic :

الترجمة:

نشرت تدوينة على مدونة جوجل الرسمية مفادها أن خدمة Google Answers مع نهاية هذا العام سيتم إغلاقها، ولن يتم استقبال أي أسئلة أخرى..

ولكن ستظل المعلومات و البيانات الموجودة حاليا متاحة للجمهور..

في حفظ الله أيتها الخدمة العزيزة..

أنا أحب جوجل كثيرا، وأعتبره أفضل صديق لي على الانترنت
(ملحوظة هذه تجربة لشكل الترجمة، لأنيي قررت أن أترجم التدوينات هنا)

'Au Revoir' micro-soft-ware!

2006-11-29T17:01:00.000+02:00

French Parliament is moving from microsoft's windows to Linux platform, replacing IE with Mozilla's FireFox and microsoft office with OpenOffice.org ....

As reported on NewsFactor.com There is currently a number of French ministries and government bureaus that run Linux, but only on servers. France's Senate and National Assembly will be the first to use Linux on workstations, although neither one has announced which flavor of Linux it plans to use instead of Microsoft's software next year.

Click here to read in details...

In Fact "Je suis tres content de vous ecrire cette poste"*! :)

-----
*My French is bad, very bad.. no comments on it please :)

translation to Arabic:

يقوم حاليا البرلمان الفرنسي باستبدال نظام التشغيل windows بنظام التشغيل مفتوح المصدر Linux مستبدلا -كخطوات انتقالية- متصفح internet explorer بالمتصفح FireFox الذي تنتجه شركة Mozilla، وبرنامج Microsoft Office بــOpenOffice.org...

هناك عدة مزودات (servers) في عدة وزارات و عدة مكاتب حكومية تعمل بالفعل بنظام التشغيل Linux، ولكن تأتي هذه المبادرة لتعميم استخدامها بين الموظفين وليس فقط على الخوادم (servers)..

لا نملك إلا أن نقول ولو جزئيا "وداعا microsoft"!!

Open for Business

2006-11-29T01:05:00.001+02:00

This is a presentation for Andre Hill, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Linux for Novell, Inc. speaks at the second Trans-Pacific Open Source Software Conference (TPOSSCON) in Honolulu, Hawaii during the month of January, 2006.

translation to Arabic:

هذا فيديو متاح على google video لأحد العروض التي قدمها آندري هيل، رئيس قطاع مراقبة الجودة بشركة Novell، في المؤتمر الثاني للمصادر المفتوحة عبر المحيط والذي أقيم في هونولولو في جزر الهاواي خلال شهر يناير من العام الحالي 2006

يتحدث آندري في هذه الجلسة عن المصادر المفتوحة في مجال الأعمال أو الـbuisiness

Rainbow technique, makes paper better!

2006-11-27T19:53:00.000+02:00

Just follow this link, as I am in a big hurry..

Too much to be done!

Mountains of e-garbage!

2006-11-27T19:28:00.000+02:00

bbc arabia is repoting that the UN envirnoment program is holding a meeting to discuss the dangerous "e-garbage" that are dumped in poor and third world countries, which amount exceeds 50 tons yearly!

This process produces dangerous chemicals, besides having "heavy materials" for the process of the "mother nature"!

The program leader thinks that this kind of garbage is the most growing in our third world countries which comes among other developed countries' kinds of garbage!

Before, these were shipped to asian countries like India and China, but when they started putting more restrictions they found it easier just to dump them here!

the report contains more freaking data..

For more info just click here!

"Xbox" is too heavy for Amazon!

2006-11-25T17:16:00.000+02:00

Slashdot.org is reporting that Amazon.com went down under the load of successful Xbox !!

what a pitty!

Ali Baba in China!

2006-11-25T15:09:00.000+02:00

No I am not kidding!

Ali Baba is in China!

still don't believe me?! just follow this link... published on the Pacific Epoch*

This link is reporting a co-operational agreement signed between AliBaba and China Post on online payment services.
------
* (a boutique media and business intelligence firm focusing on technology, media, and telecommunications investment opportunities in China).

No Comment!

2006-11-06T18:44:00.000+02:00

Click the image to enlarge..

Towards Software Engineering

2006-08-20T13:52:00.000+03:00

One of my goals in life is to be an effective Software Engineer,
So I created this blog..

Why not on the other blog?!!

Because I will deal with very specific issues, and most of the visitors of my blog don't understand or even don't want what will be written here..

I will start posting here very soon ISA, wait for me...