Unpleasent Treat, Movenpick bahrain

I am leaving Kuwait now back to Jordan, after spending 6 days in Kuwait.
I have not been in kuwait since 2003, but then, i had a splendid stay at Marriott (I was treated lavishly, really pampered in all sense). This time I thought i was making the best decision by staying at Movenpick Kuwait (Free Zone). To be honest, i was a bit disappointed. The only 5 Star aspect of the Hotel is Service, however, the hotel is of poor quality, you can notice that as soon as you get to the reception area. It looks old and unmaintained and the finish is not good.The room is Ok, spacious and clean, but the furniture does lack the 5 Star luxury feel.
I did not enjoy the TV since it has been a while since i watched a NON-LCD any kind of display. It is an old 29 Inch regular TV, with a bad sound quality, and not to mention, a rather poor choice of channels.
One point worth mentioning is the fact that there seems to be a sewage treatment plant nearby, and as such, some times (especially at night any in the early monring hours, it smells like Sh.t). Unfortunetly, these are the periods when i was most likely to be in the Hotel.
The food is good, but the buffet is not a 5 stars buffet from an assortment point of view. That applies to both breakfast and dinner.

In essense, for the amount of money paid, i will not return

as for the general stay, i was there for a short consulting engagmemt at Kuwait University, to check how the team is doing with the Jdeveloper 11g New ADF technology. In all fairness, they are doing very good job and definitely, they are an early adopters to the technology

ammar

العيد بعيدين

and maybe more,

the first reason is because it is EID Al Adha, and instead for writing again and agian about it, i will just refer to
http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2008/09/eid-dj-vu.html.

and for the second Eid, it about some technical issue that i figured about ADF technology. If you are not familiar with what Oracle ADF is, stop reading because this is not for YOU, or continue at our own risk

Well, i spend the day yesterday fiddling around with ADF binding concepts until i believe i have got it all figured out. I was working with this technology for quite sometime (only from out of the box) but since i am asked to do some consulting job next week in Kuwait, i have been doing nitty gritty details and trying to come done to core of the material.

I have designed two pages one based on on Table DEPT and with the following page definition information

Page definition name ="untitled1PageDef"
iterator name ="deptView1Iterator"

and the other is page is based on TRADE table with the following page definition information

Page definition name ="untitled1PageDef"
iterator name ="tradeView1Iterator"

A trivial scenario would be to read some page1 attribute (Text item) from page1 while running page one. All ADF programmers must have encountered this situation and have done it many times through several different solution. The solution i pick is a solution that i can always use and a solution that depends on the basics (No Eid here)

FacesContext ctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
Application app = ctx.getApplication();
ValueBinding bind = app.createValueBinding("#{data}");

BindingContext bindingCtx = (BindingContext)bind.getValue(ctx);
DCBindingContainer dcb = (DCBindingContainer)bindingCtx.findBindingContainer("untitled1PageDef");
DCIteratorBinding Iter = dcb.findIteratorBinding("DeptView1Iterator");
String attr =Iter.getCurrentRow().getAttribute(2).toString();

(note: i know that there are short cuts that would probably eliminate a few lines of code, but at the expense of hiding the basics).


Now, let us move to the following situation. I am running page1 and selected a specific row, and i am moving to page 2 and i am required to find an attribute of on page 1 (which i have already left) . Well many techniques exist and most of them depend on other standard web techniques like using Session Variables, or ADF actions set Action listener etc..
The basic concept in ADF relies on a model object that holds that sources based on View Object. Since view objects are already instantiated by the Application Module and their data is persistent as long as the application module is alive, and since such objects are bound to ADF iterator binding in the binding containers, then, its only makes sense that we should be able to read the iterator binding of any visited page definition.

Well, during my past readings , i came to know more things about iterator binding, that i undermined at that time. The Literature about ADF iterator binding says, that after the completion of the JSF and ADF lifecycle, the framework unbinds the iterator binding from its data source and rebinds it again when the page is loaded again. This is done automatically to save resources. This of course does not cause the loss of any data, because the view object is still there in the model layer. It is only the iterator binding pointer is not there and in most cases, it needs not be there since at that time the user is on a different page

So, for now, page2 is displayed on the screen and there is a button on page2 screen and i want to read information from page1, the same information that i read when i was already on page 1.

An innocent attempt would be to use the same code as before, and if you do, you will face a NullPointer exception when you run

DCIteratorBinding Iter = dcb.findIteratorBinding("DeptView1Iterator");

Because as i explained earlier the binding iterator of page 1 (DeptView1Iterator) is not bound after the page lifecycle is complete even though the iterator itself exists?? It will be bound during the iterator refresh step during page reload.

Well, then i can find some why to manually refresh the iterator binding, i should be able to accomplish what i want, and Eureka, after some brain drain investigating, i found it


call getRowSetIterator();


and then I included the above call in my code with my fingers crossed, and the Second Eid emerged for me , it worked like a charm

FacesContext ctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
Application app = ctx.getApplication();
ValueBinding bind = app.createValueBinding("#{data}");

BindingContext bindingCtx = (BindingContext)bind.getValue(ctx);
DCBindingContainer dcb = (DCBindingContainer)bindingCtx.findBindingContainer("untitled1PageDef");
DCIteratorBinding Iter = dcb.findIteratorBinding("DeptView1Iterator");
String attr =Iter.getRowSetIterator().getCurrentRow().getAttribute(2).toString();
//simialr to DCBindingIterator Iter = (DCBindingIterator)Iter.get("binding iterator)
DCIteratorBinding Iter1 = dcb.findIteratorBinding("tradeView1Iterator");
String attr2 =Iter1.getRowSetIterator().getCurrentRow().getAttribute(2).toString();
System.out.println(attr);
System.out.println(attr2);

The getRowSetIterator() binds it again to the data control and hence it now points to current row of the view object (which would be the row you selected in the previous page when you navigated out of it)

Since I became more confident about my knowledge, i thought, ok what if the user ran page2 immediately without running page 1, and tried to access some data from page (1).
There is no data in page 1!!! and that is exactly the case, running the above code would legitimately yield NullPointer Exception. To demonstrate my understanding, i thought i would manipulate the code is a way, that in case the user skipped page1 , it only makes sense to say that in this case, the current row of the first page would be the first row in the view object, I figure what if i execute a query of the first page iterator after accessing it using

Iter.executeQuery();

Again, it worked like a charm

FacesContext ctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
Application app = ctx.getApplication();
ValueBinding bind = app.createValueBinding("#{data}");

BindingContext bindingCtx = (BindingContext)bind.getValue(ctx);
DCBindingContainer dcb = (DCBindingContainer)bindingCtx.findBindingContainer("untitled1PageDef");
DCIteratorBinding Iter = dcb.findIteratorBinding("DeptView1Iterator");
String attr =Iter.getRowSetIterator().getCurrentRow().getAttribute(2).toString();
//simialr to DCBindingIterator Iter = (DCBindingIterator)Iter.get("binding iterator)
DCIteratorBinding Iter1 = dcb.findIteratorBinding("tradeView1Iterator");
Iter1.executeQuery();
String attr2 =Iter1.getRowSetIterator().getCurrentRow().getAttribute(2).toString();
System.out.println(attr);
System.out.println(attr2);

I know it means nothing to most of you, but it sure does to me and others in who opt to understand the framework that way i want ....

Which brings up a new reason why it a Eid, well, right now, at about 8:10 PM, we are leaving home and heading for a 36 hours vacation at Aqaba, a decision taken at the spur of the moment

Happy Me

Significant leap forward

the Large Hadron Collider is back after it was damaged last year. This collider is by far the largest ever built and will smash atoms in order to unleash the secrets hidden in the depth of matter.

Exciting experiments shall shed light on the Big Bang theory that explains h the world is started.

Disappointed -- Twice

Once in Dubai, and the other one in Windows 7

As usual, GITEX runs in October and our company exhibits as part of the Jordanian Pavilion.

I do not share sentiments with Dubai's large no of fan. I have always had mixed feelings, but now i have only negative feeling. Even though, and from the outside, it has the looks of modern cities, however, there are fews things that cannot but piss you off.

Upon arrival, i headed immediately to the passport control, and after waiting in a queue for quite sometime, i was relieved that it was my turn to check my passport, only to be asked by a friendly lady to go back to the lower floor and take an Iris Signature. Along the way i found many people returning. How Difficult is it for officials in Dubai to install a sign asking arrivals to take Iris signature before proceeding to Passport Control? The same thing happens every day and nobody is taking any action.

I rented a car (things went smooth) and upon hitting the street, i just faced a total mess. Lots of constructions and diversions , which is fine, but the signage is just horrible. You start with a sign and when you reach an intersection or a diversion, the signs do not tell you anything, and if you are lucky, you might find a small sign at exactly the intersection, by which time, it is almost impossible for you to change lanes.

it took me exactly 30 minutes to reach my hotel, because i was going around it for several rounds. I made a visual contact early on, but getting there amongst the mesh of diversion and constructions is something that requires quite a bit of training.

Arriving at the expo grounds is also an adventure. It is located next to Dubai world trade center that is reachable from a large round about!! and you can probably imagine the traffic on round about in busy areas. But when you reach the parking area, you also wait in lines only to find a poor parking area with no asphalt. If you are lucky, you find a parking place; mind you, that we are exhibitors and paying a lot to rent an area in Gitex and, therefore, the least of our expectations is find a proper parking location. There are three parking lots A, B, and C, I noticed that C is the least busy of all, so the next morning i thought i was going to play it smart. I waited in the line, and when i reached Parking A, I skipped it so that i can part in C, only to find that C is closed. Of course , no sign or nothing. It seems that in Dubai you need to improve foretelling and occultism skills. Going back to the line would take me another 20 minutes, so i decided to park at the corner of the street. When i returned to my car in the evening, i found a parking ticket saying that i am parking in an inappropriate location.


What added in my disappointment is the big fuss made by the release of Windows 7. I bought a Laptop running windows 7, and immediately hit incompatibility issues:
1- does not run my Vmware virtualization software.
2- took my a long time to make it connect to my wireless router.

problems with windows 7 made my search for critiques about it, and i would like to share with you this article

Under the Hood, Windows 7 Is Vista's Twin

Who is Microsoft trying to fool? Underneath the fresh coat of paint, Windows 7 looks and runs like Vista. Here are the benchmarks to prove it.

http://pcworld.about.com/od/windows1/Under-the-Hood-Windows-7-Is-V.htm

ammar sajdi

He was a model professor: generous with ideas, gracious with advice, and intellectually curious about many subjects

This is what students of Professor Richard M. Brown said when he passed away on Aug, 22 09

Brown worked in the Control Systems Laboratory at Illinois (now the Coordinated Science Laboratory) when it was new to campus, helping to set a foundation for digital computer research. He was involved in the creation of such ground-breaking computers as the CSX-1 and the first supercomputer, the ILLIAC IV. PLATO, the first computer-assisted instruction system that helped to develop Internet concepts such as chat rooms and online testing, was helped by Brown’s research on teaching machines.

He did not live to hear what his students had to say about him! He did make a difference and the title just spells it out. If you like it, try to make a difference!

i tried myself, but it seems it shows after we die (if Ever!!!)

annar

حملة انتخابية بالعيد

كالعادة وكما هو متعارف علية محليا , يدأب المرشح باقتناص الفرص لمجاملة الناس في كل مناسبة بعد سنوات عجاف من البعد والجفاء وانا طبعا واحد من هذا النسيج الاجتماعي ولا اشكل اي استثناء لذا اسمحو لي اخواني واخواتي ان اتقدم لكم بباقة من اجمل التهاني بمناسبة حلول عيد الفطر السعي واذكركم ب

برئاسة الاخ غسان خرفان

البوس ممنوع

القى فايروس N1H1 بظلالة على مراكز الافتاء الاسلامية حيث وردت اخبار ان البوس اصبح مكروها منعا لانتشار الفيروس.

لا داعي للهلع فيبدو ان المنع مؤقتا حيث يتوقع ان يرفع الحظر بعد العيد مباشرة لتستمر عمليات البوس كالمعتاد

I am surprised too

I am running for Amman Chamber of Commerce board elections

16000 people shall cast their vote on Oct 3, 2009.

To vote, you company must have a captial exceeding 5000 JD and must be registered as a memeber in the Amman Chamber of Commerce.

REALSOFT in the NEWs ريل سوفت

http://www.petra.gov.jo/Artical.aspx?Lng=2&Section=4&Artical=133029 http://www.addustour.com/ViewTopic.aspx?ac=\Economy\2009\08\Economy_issue693_day31_id171383.htm http://www.alanbat.net/news/Viewoldnews.asp?Nid=239474 http://www.alarabalyawm.net/pages.php?news_id=180754 http://www.addustour.com/ViewArchiveTopic.aspx?ac=\Economy\2004\09\EconomyNews_Issue14390_Day9_ID85843.htm

http://www.elaph.com/Web/Technology/2008/11/381301.htm

sample

البرمجيات المتقدمة والحلول النقالة تنفذان تعدادا تجريبيا في قطر

[30/08/2009 12:34]

عمان 30 آب(بترا)- انهت شركتا البرمجيات المتقدمة ريل سوفت والحلول النقالة تنفيذ التعداد التجريبي للسكان والمساكن والمنشآت في دولة قطر . وتم تنفيذ التجربة بالتعاون مع جهاز الإحصاء القطري وشملت 700 أسرة موزعة على 4 بلديات تمهيدا لإجراء التعداد العام للسكان والمساكن والمنشآت في2010. وقال بيان اصدرته شركة ريل سوفت اليوم الاحد هذا أول تعداد تجريبي ينفذ استعدادا لتعداد 2010 في دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي. ويعتبر التعداد التجريبي مرحلة مهمة تنفذ في كافة المشاريع المشابهة لاختبار المنهجيات والعمليات والتقنيات والخروج بتوصيات لمرحلة التعداد الفعلي. والبرمجيات المتقدمة شركة اردنية تم تأسيسها في العام 2002 والحلول النقالة شركة شقيقة سيستر كومبني للشركة الاولى. واشتملت التجربة على اربع مراحل لمحاكاة خطوات التعداد الفعلي، حيث تم في كل مرحلة استيفاء استمارة خاصة لبيانات المباني والوحدات السكنية ثم المنشات وفي النهاية جمع البيانات التفصيلية للسكان من مواطنين ووافدين. وجاء في بيان الشركة ان المراحل كافة تمت بسلاسة حيث كان يتم ربط بيانات كل مرحلة بالمراحل السابقة لها لضمان تكامل واتساق البيانات الإحصائية. ومن أهم معالم هذه التجربة استخدام الأجهزة الكفية الالكترونية بي دي ايه المزودة بالخرائط الالكترونية والصور الجوية لجمع البيانات ونقلها إلكترونيا إلى قواعد البيانات المركزية بدلا من الأسلوب التقليدي الورقي. وشركة ريل سوفت نفذت تعداد سلطنة عمان 2003 باستخدام الاجهزة الكفية في ولاية مسقط علما بأن سلطنة عُمان شرعت بالتحضير لتعداد 2010 على مستوى السلطنة باستخدام تقنيات الأجهزة الكفية. يشار ان دائرة الإحصاءات العامة أدخلت وبالتعاون مع الشركة خدمة الاجهزة الكفية في إجراء التعداد الزراعي العام 2007. --(بترا) ف ح/س ج/ س ق.

Edward Said National Music Conservatory

I have attended the Palestine Youth Orchestra performance that took place this week in Amman, and i must say that given the constraints imposed on a Palestine ensemble of this sort, the performance was far from being ordinary. I was captivated by watching some 50 young musicians mostly in their early 20s orchestrating the marvelous Beethoven’s Third Symphony Eroica, “a tribute to a great man”. The group was led by the acclaimed English conductor Sian Edwards. The event was in Commemoration of Mahmood Darweesh.I am glad i did not miss it

Ammar sajdi

Aug 17, 09

Not a Shred of evidence exists in favour of the idea that life is serious

and then we die.

Looks like i found a new baby

Liferay, an open source content management and collaboration portal.
Seems to have been around for a while, but i accidentally came across it while searching for performance figure on Linux machine required by a client of us here in Muscat-Oman.

effect of sound

human mind can accept to listen tp the same piece of music over and over again. We buy CD's DVD's and previously Cassettes because we want to keep listening, However, we generally, do not wish to watch the same movie over and over again. Buying a Movie DVD is certainly an ineffcient and costly decision. If you pay 20JD for A DVD and watch it one or at most twice, then each instance costs you at least 10JD, however, if you pay the same for a music DVD, you most probably listen to so many times, making the cost of each listening instance very cost effective.
But what we take for granted and i am unable to answer is what is it in our mind set that accept hearing repitition more than visual one.

Marwa is murdered in Germany

Marwa Al-Shirbini, an 32 year pregnant Eygptian women was stapped to death at a Dresden Courtroom by a German citizen of russan descendant. She was suing her attacker after he insulted her for wearing the Islamic hijab.

By the way she was stabbed 18 times, and the police came into the room and shot her husband instead of the attackers (because of his Islamic beard and dark complexion )

Where is CNN! Or BBC why isn't this event occupying the breaking News

to stab somebody 18 times, must have taken long time, where was everybody? And how come the police shot her husband. Why do they assume that we are the attackers, I do not recall that we occupied Britain or occupied Germany to give them the feel that we are hostile in nature, or have done anything to instigate avenge.

Imagine that a German national is stabbed to death in an Egyptian Courtroom. I would be certain that in every newspaper, magazine, News or media broadcast would be talking about this event till we get sick and tired of listening.

TAMIFLU BLuff

a month ago, i contracted a medical condition that caused 39 Degree fever for a few days.
I was prescribed TamiFlu.

TamiFlu is being prescribed for Swine Flu and currently it is selling like hot cake world wide.

After doing some research i came to believe that Tamif lu and swine flu are just a bluff

The following is extracted from the following link http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/general/news/swine_flu.html

What are the symptoms associated with Novel H1N1 flu? If I have symptoms, what should I do?A. Symptoms of H1N1 flu are the same as for seasonal influenza: high fever, headache, muscle aches, and cough. Most people will be able to care for themselves at home. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends staying home for 7 days from the onset of symptoms. Should symptoms last longer, staying home a day beyond the resolution of symptoms is recommended. Those with more severe problems should seek medical attention.


I am sick. What should I do? What about testing?Measures that can be useful for controlling flu symptoms include plenty of fluids and medicines such as acetaminophen (Tylenol,) ibuprofen (Advil,) and naproxen sodium (Aleve) at label-recommended doses. These are effective at controlling fever, headache, sore throat, and muscle pains. Aspirin should not be used by children or adolescents, as aspirin use with the flu is associated with a rare and serious condition known as Reye’s Syndrome.Some reasons to seek emergency medical care include chest pain, inability to keep liquids down, seizure, or confusion.University of Illinois students may always call our Dial-a-Nurse, 333-2700 any time of the day or night. Most people who are sick with an influenza-like illness will not require any testing nor will most require any special antiviral medications. Novel H1N1 testing is not available in doctor’s offices. These tests are done by state health departments. In Illinois, only patients who are sick with the flu and who require hospitalization are tested for Novel H1N1. Antiviral medications should be reserved for the very ill or those who could become very ill if they contracted the flu.


Conclusion: the above is an announcement by a university officials to their students, and it clearly states that for the most part, ppl will care for themselves at home without prescribed medication.

Swine flu is no more sever than normal flue
According to Dr. Thomas Frieden, the new CDC director as of June 8, 2009: "There’s no question that a new strain of influenza spreading rapidly throughout the world is a major problem and requires a major response. So far, it doesn’t seem to be any more severe than seasonal flu, but seasonal flu kills 36,000 Americans a year." [84]


How many people have died of Swine flu so far

According to the BBC (UK) - "worldwide there have been 19,315 confirmed swine flu cases in 66 countries, with 117 deaths - all in Mexico and the US."

according to Center of Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm
Over 90% of deaths and about 60 percent of hospitalization occur in people older than 65. and 1-% of those hospitalized are children below 5.



TamiFlu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseltamivir
U.S. Government policy and oseltamivirIn November 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush requested that Congress fund US$7.1 billion in emergency spending for flu pandemic preparedness (the Senate had already passed an US$8.1 billion bill).[58] Bush's plan included US$1.4 billion for government purchases of antiviral drugs.[59]

who owns TamiFlu

It was developed by US-based Gilead Sciences and is currently marketed by Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) under the trade name Tamiflu

Gilead Sciences:-
formed in 1987, but who becomes board member in 1988? and later in 1997 became the chairman?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilead_Sciences
In January 1997, Donald Rumsfeld, a Board member since 1988, was appointed Chairman of the company.[2] He stood down from the Board in January 2001 when appointed Secretary of Defense at the start of George W. Bush's first term as President. Federal disclosure forms indicate that Rumsfeld owns between USD$5 million and USD$25 million in Gilead stock. The rise in Gilead's share prices from USD$35 to USD$57 per share will have added between USD$2.5 million to USD$15.5 million to Rumsfeld's net worth.[3]In November 2005, George W. Bush urged Congress to pass $7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare for the possible bird flu pandemic, of which one billion is solely dedicated to the purchase, and distribution of Tamiflu.

currently George P. Shultz (emeritus) is on board.

Some big names surely benefit from selling Tamiflu and the outbreak of swine flue. Responsible reports do not mention Tamiflu as an effective medication aginst swine flu


http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/health/tamiflu+expiry+date+can+be+extended/3134062

Tamiflu expiry date can be extended is the title of the article with the above link.
It seems that lots of Tamiflu stocks are about to expire! How to get them disposed of?

a Few reports on CNN and get people freak out about the disease. Wait, but the stocks are about to expiry, no worries, the stocks can still be effective for more two years and all of a sudden, TamiFlu is sold out.

see you after a new flu strain is discovered!

ammar sajdi

A Day forgotten

Today June 5th marks the 42nd anniversery of the 6 day war (1967) in which the west bank of Jordan fell under the occupation by the Israeli Army including East Jerusalem.

twitter

Lots of hype about twitter.

It has forced me to create "follow me on twitter".  But do not expect much from me.

Honestly speaking, i am unable to convince myself of its use for my business. 

my immediate reactions of many twitter sites is WHO CARES, i could imagine myself being responsive to twitter during my teens

compelling statement about software practices

When i read the following quote by Fred Brooks, I felt it is so true that i posted it immediately

"The gap between the best software engineering practice
and the average practice is very wide—perhaps wider than in
any other engineering discipline. A tool that disseminates
good practice would be important."

Fred Brooks

قرات لك

انتزع مني بطاقتي الشخصية
ليتأكد أني عربية
وبدأ يفتش حقيبتي وكأني أحمل
قنبلة ذرية
وقف يتأملني بصمت سمراء وملامحي ثورية
فتعجبت لمطلبه وسؤاله عن الهوية
كيف لم يعرف من عيوني أني عربيه
أم أنه فضل أن أكون أعجمية
لأدخل بلاده دون إبراز الهوية
وطال انتظاري وكأني لست في بلاد عربية
أخبرته أن عروبتي لا تحتاج لبطاقة شخصية
فلم انتظر على هذه الحدود الوهمية
وتذكرت مديح جدي لأيام الجاهلية
عندما كان العربي يجوب المدن العربية
لا يحمل معه سوى زاده ولغته العربية
وبدأ يسألني عن أسمي جنسيتي
وسر زيارتي الفجائية
فأجبته أن اسمي وحدة
جنسيتي عربية سر زيارتي تاريخية

سألني عن مهنتي وإن كان لي سوابق جنائية
فأجبته أني إنسانة عادية
لكني كنت شاهدا على اغتيال القومية
سأل عن يوم ميلادي وفي أي سنة هجرية
فأجبته أني ولدت يوم ولدت البشرية
سألني إن كنت أحمل أي أمراض وبائية
فأجبته أني أصبت بذبحة صدرية
عندما سألني ابني عن معنى الوحدة العربية

فسألني أي ديانة أتبع الإسلام أم المسيحية
فأجبته بأني أعبد ربي بكل الأديان السماوية

فأعاد لي أوراقي حقيبتي وبطاقتي الشخصية
وقال عودي من حيث أتيت
فبلادي لا تستقبل الحرية

الشاعرة الليبية ردينة الفيلالي

My Mom sent me this

It seems that my mon hangs out with a group who are deeply in love with emailing. I get emails from her consistently, the following is one that some of her friends sent her and i found it spectacular

ENLIGHTENED
I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.
I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.
I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made myday!' makes my day.
I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.
I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.
I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.
I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't havet he strength to help him in some other way.
I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you tobe, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.
I've learned.... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.
I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.
I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.
I've learned.... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I 've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.
I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.
I've learned..... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
I've learned... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.
I've learned...... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.
I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost, someone will take the ones you miss.
I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.
I've learned.... That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.
I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender,because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.
I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain,but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

Zaha Foundation

my Aunt Zaha Jardaneh Mango decided to establish a new non-profit organization called Zaha Foundation. Its main purpose is to serve childhood in Jordan. This effort had commenced many years ago when she started the now successfuly Zaha Cultural Center.

pursue vs peruse

look carefuly, it is not the difference is not only the second letter

P U R S U E
P E R U S E

To me Pursue is more common and i feel it is widely used, However, the other word PERUSE, that you can mistakenly read as pursue, mean to READ CAREFULY

Cloud Appreciation

clouds are the more subtle manifestations of the weather. There is usually an understated beauty, which is why it is so often overlooked. No wonder, then, they want to show off every once in a while with such explosive, heart-stopping fireworks

visit

http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/

Manifesto

WE BELIEVE that clouds are unjustly malignedand

hat life would be immeasurably poorer without them.

We think that they are Nature’s poetry,
and the most egalitarian of her displays, since

everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it.

Life would be dull if we had to look up at
cloudless monotony day after day.

We seek to remind people that clouds are expressions

of the atmosphere’s moods, and can be read like those of a person’s countenance.

Clouds are so commonplace that their beauty is often overlooked.

They are for dreamers and their contemplation benefits the soul.

Indeed, all who consider the shapes they see in them will save on

psychoanalysis bills.

And so we say to all who’ll listen:

Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty

and live life with your head in the clouds!

يا اوباما انت الامل

مِن أوباما..لِجَميعِ الأعرابِ شُعوباً أو حُكّاما / أحمد مطر
الرسالة
مِن أوباما..لِجَميعِ الأعرابِ شُعوباً أو حُكّاما

:قَرْعُ طَناجِرِكُمْ في بابي

أرهَقَني وَأطارَ صَوابي

افعَل هذا يا أوباما..اترُك هذا يا أوباما ..أمطِرْنا بَرْداً وسَلاما يا أوباما

وَفِّرْ للِعُريانِ حِزاما !!يا أوباما

خَصِّصْ للِطّاسَةِ حَمّاما

يا أوباما

..فَصِّلْ للِنَملَةِ بيجاما !!

يا أوباما

..قَرقَعَة نعلِكُ أحلاما

وتَقيء صَداها أوهَامَا

وَسُعارُ الضَّجّةِ مِن حَوْلي

لا يَخبو حتّى يتنامى

وَأنا رَجْلُ عِندي شُغْل

ٌأكثَرُ مِن وَقتِ بَطالَتكُم

ْأطوَلُ مِن حُكْمِ جَلالَتِكُم

ْفَدَعوني أُنذركُمْ بَدءاً

كَي أحظى بالعُذْر ختاما

لَستُ بِخادمِ مَن خَلَّفَكُمْ

لأُسِاطَ قُعوداً وَقياما

لَستُ أخاكُمْ حَتّى أُهْجى

إن أنَا لَمْ أصِلِ الأرحاما

لَستُ أباكُمْ حَتّى أُرجى

لأكِونَ عَلَيْكُمْ قَوّاما

وَعُروبَتُكُمْ لَمْ تَختَرني

وَأنا ما اختَرتُ الإسلاما !

فَدَعوا غَيري يَتَبَنّاكُمْ

أو ظَلُّو أبَداً أيتاما!

أنَا أُمثولَةُ شَعْبٍ يأبىأن يَحكُمَهُ أحَدّ غَصبْا

و نِظامٍ يَحتَرِمُ الشَّعب

اوَأنا لَهُما لا غَيرِهِما

سأُقَطِّرُ قَلبي أنغاما

حَتّى لَو نَزَلَتْ أنغامي

فَوقَ مَسامِعِكُمْ..ألغاما!

فامتَثِلوا.. نُظُماً وَشُعوباً

وَاتَّخِذوا مَثَلي إلهاما

أمّا إن شِئتُمْ أن تَبقوا

في هذي الدُّنيا أنعاما

تَتَسوَّلُ أمْنَاً وَطَعاما

فَأُصارِحُكُمْ ... أنّي رَجُلُ

في كُلِّ مَحَطّاتِ حَياتي

لَمْ أُدخِلْ ضِمْنَ حِساباتي

أن أرعى، يوماً، أغناما

لمطالعة المزيد تفضلوا بزيارة
مجلة رؤية http://www.royaah.net

You cannot have an IP Camera in Jordan

An IP camera is similar to WebCam, but it is not directly attached to your Desktop via USB. It is Assigned an IP address and therefore, can connect to any point in your LAN.

I found a nice IP Camera in Amazon.Com and I ordered it. This IP Camera turned out to hook to a wireless LAN. It arrived to the Airport with Aramex and Aramex told me that since it is wireless you need to get it approved from TRC (Telecom Regulatory Commission). So far so good, i am sure they want to make sure that it works on the standard IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g protocol that uses the 2,4 GHz Bank.

Well, it took a couple of days to get the approval. Aramex told me that you have to wait more since the Camera has to get the approval of Military Security (Al-Amen Al-3askari). That was sometime in January, and after that , there was no news about the Camera. After getting some people make a few calls to make the process faster. I received a call from the Airport last Wed asking me to come on Thursday. I went Thursday early in the morning (I arrived at about 8:15) only to find that the office they asked me to visit was closed. People told me that they can come any moment. It was at about 11 O’clock that somebody came and opened the door.

He invited me in and I told him about the Camera. He opened a folder and looked at some correspondence and told me that this Camera is not allowed to get into JORDAN.

I was really shocked! I could understand that they wanted to know what kind of a camera it is. But to end up banning its entry for security reasons is totally absurd. I am sorry, but how can a wireless camera that hooks to a standard wireless network that cannot send a signal for more that a few meters cause a risk to the national security.

Today wireless networks are everywhere; in fact our office is standardized on wireless! His Majesty the king and through several trips tried so hard to promote the IT industry outside Jordan, but trying to market local companies and try to bring in foreign companies to open offices in Jordan. Imagine what impression such companies would have when they realize that they cannot get their wireless camera in! And then how can we become an IT exporter country according to the Kings wish when we cannot get in some of the basic wireless components ?

I cannot understand why mobiles with cameras are allowed in Jordan!

In the end, the guy was so kind to me and told me that he is going to offer me an option to re-export it! Reporting it according to Aramex will cost me 120 JD just for the paper work and 42 JD as fees (which is more than the cost of the Camera itself)

Term of Art

Intrestingly, according to everything2.com the phrase Term of Art nicely truns out to be



A word or phrase used by practitioners in a field of endeavour which has a precise and typically quite technical meaning within the context of the field of endeavour. Terms of art allow practitioners in a field to communicate with each other concisely and unambiguously.
Inventing suitable yet totally new words to be used as terms of art is often quite difficult. Consequently, the words which become terms of art often also have non-field-specific meanings. This can create and/or reinforce communication barriers between a field's practitioners and non-practitioners. Unfortunately, inventing totally new words or borrowing words from other languages can also contribute to said communication barriers (see "de bene esse" below).
The extent to which a practitioner uses their field's terms of art correctly and routinely is a strong indicator of the depth and breadth of the practitioner's experience in the field. That said, the mark of a true adept in a field of endeavour is their ability to clearly communicate advanced field-specific concepts to non-practitioners.
It should be noted that "term of art" is essentially a synonym of jargon when the two are used in colloquial contexts. On the other hand, "term of art" is a term of art in the legal profession whereas "jargon" isn't!



Examples include:
back door:
In computer security, a hidden way into a system.
In architecture, a door on the back or rear side of a building.
In poker, (roughly speaking) a hand which improves dramatically after the exchange of multiple cards.
de bene esse: in law, formally sufficient for the time being. Somehow, I doubt that this term has much meaning outside of the context of the law.
party:
In law, the claimant or respondent in a lawsuit (there are other "term of art" definitions of "party" within the legal field of endeavour).
In university life, what often happens on Friday and/or Saturday night.
thread:
In sewing, a thin filament or fiber.
In computing, an independent entity executing with the context of a process.
In e-mail or usenet, a chain of messages or posting on, at least in theory, a single topic.

Cebit Computer Fair, what has changed

The last time REALSOFT exhibited in Cebit fair in Hannover, Germany was back in 2005!
The fair started last Tuesday, March 3rd, 09 and will end next Sunday (The day after tomorrow). There is an apparent down sizing in the no of companies participating. Probably affected by the not so favorable mood for extra spending. The number of attendees seems to have diminished since my last visit.
IBM Stand is big and impressive, and managed to attarct attention, especailly in the Clound Computing display area. Microsoft and SAP also have impressive presense, while Oracle presense is not that big.
The weather this year in fine so far, it is definitely warmer than the last time.
The Jordan Pavillion is very nice this time, it is funded by JEDCO and SIPPO. The available services of the Jordanian companies are better than any time before.

Starbucks loses again

more and more, we hear new floating around that Starbucks is somehow affiliated with the Zionist state. Even though the official response of Starbucks deny support to Israel (read below), but it seems whether they like it or not, they are going to stop financial support to anyone but Starbucks itself

1) Starbucks is closing an additional 300 stores, says the Seattle Times, and will eliminate 700 non-store and 6,000 store jobs. The store closings will save the company $500 million per year. Meanwhile, the company is trying to sell a fancy corporate jet it bought last month for $45 million

2) Consumer Reports, conducted a recent coffee study and ranked "Eight O'clock Coffee" as the best tasting coffee and noted that Starbucks, which costs considerably more did not even merit an honorable mention
It seems that the prosperous days of Starbucks are gone! What caught my attention two days back when i was in Oman is that although the campaign against Starbucks reached its peak during the Gaza invasion, Starbucks hang out locations in Muscat city center were packed. There is not execute "Eight Oclock coffee is not only better, but also cheaper"

January 5, 2009
Rumor Response: Starbucks Statement re: Support of Israel

Rumors that Starbucks Coffee Company and its management support Israel are unequivocally false.
Starbucks is a publicly traded company with stores in 49 countries. Though our thousands of partners (employees) and business associates around the globe have diverse views and share many beliefs about a wide range of topics, our primary focus remains to deliver the best customer experience possible. Starbucks is a non-political organization and does not support political causes. Further, the political preferences of a Starbucks partner at any level have absolutely no bearing on Starbucks company policies.

Contact Information:
Starbucks Customer Relations(800) 235-2883info@starbucks.com

read the original
http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=971

the above press release from Starbucks proves that the pressure is working


Ammar Sajdi

Blogging from AFRICA

No, neither in Namibia nor Angola, but rather in Libya.Arrived in Benghazi last Saturday on Libyan Arab Airlines. That is my third or fourth trip to Benghazi.Nothing is changed.

Our visit is to an oil company and we resided on campus in their guest house. And Yes there is a TV, but I guess its screen size is no larger than the screen size of my desktop. It is an old Sony, andif you are lucky you would locate the Remote Control in the room. But don't get me wrong, it is a color TV. The whole setup reminded me of my college days, the dining schedule, the menuthe rooms etc..

Benghazi is a coastal city with pleasant weather; there is a lake inside the city ,almost the same size of Lake Geneva.

As far is Tripoli is concerned(which is a thousand Km west of Benghazi), the winds of change continue blowing; to the better of course

sufice it to say, Libya has a coastal line of 2000 KM of virgin beaches. I heard that construction is already underway for good attraction at the shoreline especially in the gulf of Sirt. Shortly, i hope, we shall be spending some serious vacation time at Libya coastal line.


Ammar Sajdi

2 new members into the league of Arab States

and 22 other countries out!

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's prime minister on Sunday denounced Israel's air assault on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip as a "crime against humanity" and called for them to end.

venezuela  Hugo Chavez asks Israel Ambassador to leave the country.

لقد أسمعت لو ناديت حياً ولكن لا حياة لمن تنادي

"CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela ordered the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador on Tuesday to protest Israel's military offensive in theGaza strip"

That is Venezuela more than 10000 Km away, shame on us

مكالمة مع الامل

الشاعر : أحمد مطر

أمس اتصلت بالأمل

قلت له: هل ممكن؟ أن يخرج العطر لنا من الفسيخ والبصل؟

قال: أجل.

قلت: وهل يمكن أن تشعَل النار بالبلل؟

قال: أجل.

قلت: وهل من حنظل يمكن تقطير العسل؟

قال: أجل.

قلت: وهل يمكن وضع الأرض في جيب زحل؟

قال: نعم، بلى، أجل..

فكل شيء محتمل.

قلت: إذن عربنا سيشعرون بالخجل؟

قال: تعال ابصق على وجهي... إذا هذا حصل

حفلة راس السنة

كيف ياترى سوف يحي اهل غزة سهرة ليلة راس السنة؟
وماذا عن عواصم الدول العربية كعمان وبيروت والقاهرة ودمشق؟
وهل هنالك ما يستدعي "الاحتفال" في مثل هذة الظروف
قلوب تعتصرها الالام واخرى فرحة بقدوم فرصة للسهر ولالحتفال بالمجهول
يا جماعة الاحتفال هولمن عندة السبب للاحتفال وليس لانها عادة يجب المحافظة عليها
اما بالنسبة لي فلم يكن عندي دافع للاحتفال, ليس هذة السنة فحسب، بل كافة السنوات السابقة وكيف يكون ذلك ونحن صغيرنا وكبيرنا، غنينا وفقيرنا نعيش في حالة من الذل والهوان ، نعاصر الهزيمة تلو الاخرى ونواظب الاحتفالات براس السنة الواحده تلو الاخرى. ادعوا المحتفلين بان يتبرعوا لغزة بمبالغ تساوي المبالغ التي ستنفق على السهرة، ان كان لا بد من السهر وهذا اضعف الايمان

Frigid cold temperature

Arctic wind is on its way to the middle east, Expect -2 , -3 temperature Wed, and Thursday. Most probably dry weather shall prevail.

Weather wise

Expect freezing cold nights in the coming two days, probably sub zero temperatures.
Cold north easterly winds, and by virtue of its origin, it shall be dry.
This will make feel like much colder as well

Let your shoes do the talking

No, i am not going to talk about the size 10 shoe that barely missed President Bush head, nor about the dilemma that this event would cause security agents all over the world as metal dectectors cannot detect your metal free shoes. Or trying to imagine future presidential press meeting attended by shoeless attendees in a hot summar day afternoon. I will, on the other hand, show u a joke that i received some time back

كل سنة وانتم طيبين

I just cannot find anything better than what Al-mutanbi said

عيد بأي حال عدت يا عيد بما مضى آم بأمر فيك تغيير

I also must say that i am distressed about the new of the accident that claimed the life of 4 young people in Aqaba (12 graders), may their souls rest is piece and may god empower their parents and loved ones with patience.

One giant leap towards safe Driving

Car manufacturer strive fiercely to yield ever safer driving experiences. Millions of Dollars are spent in research and development towards this end. Cutting Edge technology has been currently devoted to come up with the state-of-the-art-technology in making our driving experience safer than ever. Finally, the panacea for safety, watch this seat belt in your future car

ban on Alcohol? a myth or a reality

In many occasions, i find myself debating why i am a no-no guy when it comes to alcohol consumption. of course, to many i am just NOT COOL, BORING. lack progressive thinking! And my mind is simply rendered incapacitated by some disputable religious doctrines! in other words , i am simply متخلف.

Well in an article published today by By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer,
Britain is considering imposing restriction on alcohol drinking as drink related death is on the rise. This is mainly due to liver problems among young people and such condition is signaling a future epidemic. As a first step, a ban on HAPPY HOURS (discounted drinking hour at bars and rest) is considered. The government is also planning to spend 10 million pounds (15 Million USD) on awareness campaign and enforcement laws against under age drinking.

I would not have personally dared to be a health advocate against alcohol drinking, because, given the above perception, people would immediately think that i am being biased, and as such driven into defending my beliefs in any way. This time, it is Gregory Katz of the associated press that you need to argue with

Cool

Jennifer Aniston,on Oprah Show was cool
the charming 50 years old Michelle Pfeiffer in "I could never be your woman was also cool"

Engineers of Jihad

Which academic pursuit has been the most prevalent among Islamic Jihadis?

An interesting article appeared in IEEE spectrum magazine September issue Volume 45 number 9 which exactly answers this question

Steffen Hertog and Diego Gambetta studied files of 404 people Jihad activist from 30 countries, only to find that the most prevalent academic pursuit is ENGINEERING.

out of the 404 people, the study could only confirm the academic standing of 178 people. 44% were engineers - most of them Electrical , Civil and Computer Engineers.

The paper submitted by these two gentlemen (no 2007-10, University of Oxford) revealed the following figure for fields of study

Engineers 78
Islamic Studies 34
Medicine 14
Business/Economics 12
Education 5
others 28
Subject Unknown 18

Interesting!

Ammar Sajdi
www.e-ammar.com
www.realsoft-me.com

وشهد شاهد من اهلة

A best seller written by the Jewish historian and a professor at Tel Aviv University shlomo sand, aserting that the Jewish people as we know them now do not necesserly descent from the origial jewish people who lived in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This URL links you to an article in Haaretz newspaper

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966952.html

this is also an article wrote by Jonathan Cook

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081006/FOREIGN/279853798

Copied and pasted below, these two article are very important as they are written by a Jewish shcolar and therefore, it cannot be taken as biased.

Book refuting Jewish taboo on Israel’s bestseller list
Jonathan Cook, Foreign Correspondent
Last Updated: October 06. 2008 10:38PM UAE / October 6. 2008 6:38PM GMT
TEL AVIV // No one is more surprised than Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel’s bestseller list – and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel’s biggest taboo.
Dr Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation – whose need for a safe haven was originally used to justify the founding of the state of Israel – is a myth invented little more than a century ago. An expert on European history at Tel Aviv University, Dr Sand drew on extensive historical and archaeological research to support not only this claim but several more – all equally controversial.In addition, he argues that the Jews were never exiled from the Holy Land, that most of today’s Jews have no historical connection to the land called Israel and that the only political solution to the country’s conflict with the Palestinians is to abolish the Jewish state.
The success of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented? looks likely to be repeated around the world. A French edition, launched last month, is selling so fast that it has already had three print runs.Translations are under way into a dozen languages, including Arabic and English. But he predicted a rough ride from the pro-Israel lobby when the book is launched by his English publisher, Verso, in the United States next year. In contrast, he said Israelis had been, if not exactly supportive, at least curious about his argument. Tom Segev, one of the country’s leading journalists, has called the book “fascinating and challenging”.
Surprisingly, Dr Sand said, most of his academic colleagues in Israel have shied away from tackling his arguments. One exception is Israel Bartal, a professor of Jewish history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Writing in Haaretz, the Israeli daily newspaper, Dr Bartal made little effort to rebut Dr Sand’s claims. Paradoxically, he dedicated much of his article instead to defending his profession. He suggested that Israeli historians were not as ignorant about the invented nature of Jewish history as Dr Sand contends.
The idea for the book had come to him many years ago, Dr Sand said, but he waited until recently to start working on it. “I cannot claim to be particularly courageous in publishing the book now,” he said. “I waited until I was a full professor. There is a price to be paid in Israeli academia for expressing views of this sort.”Dr Sand’s main argument is that until little more than a century ago, Jews thought of themselves as Jews only because they shared a common religion. At the turn of the 20th century, he said, Zionist Jews challenged this idea and started creating a national history by inventing the idea that Jews existed as a people separate from their religion.
Equally, the modern Zionist idea of Jews being obligated to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism, he added.“Zionism changed the idea of Jerusalem. Before, the holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. For 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem not because they could not return but because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came.”
The biggest surprise during his research came when he started looking at the archaeological evidence from the biblical era.“I was not raised as a Zionist, but like all other Israelis I took it for granted that the Jews were a people living in Judea and that they were exiled by the Romans in 70AD.“But once I started looking at the evidence, I discovered that the kingdoms of David and Solomon were legends. “Similarly with the exile. In fact, you can’t explain Jewishness without exile. But when I started to look for history books describing the events of this exile, I couldn’t find any. Not one.
“That was because the Romans did not exile people. In fact, Jews in Palestine were overwhelming peasants and all the evidence suggests they stayed on their lands.” Instead, he believes an alternative theory is more plausible: the exile was a myth promoted by early Christians to recruit Jews to the new faith. “Christians wanted later generations of Jews to believe that their ancestors had been exiled as a punishment from God.”
So if there was no exile, how is it that so many Jews ended up scattered around the globe before the modern state of Israel began encouraging them to “return”?Dr Sand said that, in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Christian era, Judaism was a proselytising religion, desperate for converts. “This is mentioned in the Roman literature of the time.”Jews travelled to other regions seeking converts, particularly in Yemen and among the Berber tribes of North Africa. Centuries later, the people of the Khazar kingdom in what is today south Russia, would convert en masse to Judaism, becoming the genesis of the Ashkenazi Jews of central and eastern Europe.
Dr Sand pointed to the strange state of denial in which most Israelis live, noting that papers offered extensive coverage recently to the discovery of the capital of the Khazar kingdom next to the Caspian Sea. Ynet, the website of Israel’s most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, headlined the story: “Russian archaeologists find long-lost Jewish capital.” And yet none of the papers, he added, had considered the significance of this find to standard accounts of Jewish history.
One further question is prompted by Dr Sand’s account, as he himself notes: if most Jews never left the Holy Land, what became of them?“It is not taught in Israeli schools but most of the early Zionist leaders, including David Ben Gurion [Israel’s first prime minister], believed that the Palestinians were the descendants of the area’s original Jews. They believed the Jews had later converted to Islam.”
Dr Sand attributed his colleagues’ reticence to engage with him to an implicit acknowledgement by many that the whole edifice of “Jewish history” taught at Israeli universities is built like a house of cards. The problem with the teaching of history in Israel, Dr Sand said, dates to a decision in the 1930s to separate history into two disciplines: general history and Jewish history. Jewish history was assumed to need its own field of study because Jewish experience was considered unique.
“There’s no Jewish department of politics or sociology at the universities. Only history is taught in this way, and it has allowed specialists in Jewish history to live in a very insular and conservative world where they are not touched by modern developments in historical research. “I’ve been criticised in Israel for writing about Jewish history when European history is my specialty. But a book like this needed a historian who is familiar with the standard concepts of historical inquiry used by academia in the rest of the world.”

Arabic Calligraphy

Today shall mark the end of the Arabic Calligraphy workshop that i have been attending for the last 3 weeks. It is a short workshop that meets once a week on Saturday at wild Jordan. We spend two hours learning about the different types of Arabic handwriting. I am a big fan of Arabic Calligraphy, and after attending the workshop, i am more determined than ever to pursue my quest to mastering the Diwany style, which truly captivated my sentiments.

Lots of talents coupled with a superb sense of brilliance is embedded in the scripts; coherence, harmony, and symmetry which are the prime features of this art, render an unprecedented new dimension of aesthetics to my repository of splendor.

Note: i was mistaken, there are three more sessions to go.

Emergence of a Poet

Last night and, I witness the emergence of the next generation poet. The 30 year chap, Tamim Barghouthy of a Palestine father and an Egyptian mother, is currently a political science assistant professor at Washington University. The event was held by Jerusalem Forum and the Welfare cooperation at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Amman. The Ballroom was filled with about 700 attendees and all proceeds went to the children of Gaza.

The Guy is a natural, who can write in colloquial Egyptian, and other local dialects as well as in well formatted formal poetry.

He posses a stunning talents of recitals and a superb ability to write captivating collection of harmonious series of words we call POETRY

That was my first real encounter with Tamim, even though; he appeared on TV many times before. I guess, however, that his star is shining like never before.

During the function, people generously donated money for the children of Gaza. The session was ended by book signing and i was privileged to have his signature on two of his published poetry books

Gitex is over and we are all back after 5 straight day in what i feel inclined to call Computer 7esbeh. A few positive things :-
I was really impressed by the care that the Jordanian consulate in UAE showed The commercial attaché : Mr. Al-Hakam Al-Taleb (who happened to be a classmate of mine visited the Jordanian Booth almost everyday
The consulate of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan invited us for lunch at the MovenPick hotel and the consular attended the lunch
Mr Altaleb arranged for 1 hour TV show, where one of my colleagues and I were the host in a program called Sa3et Wafa through a satellite station called Decision Makers (NileSat). It is something similar to Yes3ed Saba7ak. At the end they gave us a CD recording of the episode.

The show itself is a just an networking oppurtunity and a way to say, we are here! There are lots of people and lots of companies, and as such, there is a bit of focus distraction.

This is the third day @Gitex. Nothing extra ordinary, Just the usual, People coming and going making things look busy. Yesterday I invited some people for late lunch to an Iranian restaurant, and i was not able to make it back to the convention center due to traffic.Last time i was here i suffered to problems with finding a Taxi. This time i rented a car to overcome Taxi availability issue, only to encounter yet another problem. Availability of Parking!
It more of a social event that it is a business expo, I met a guy who was a classmate of mine. It was nice seeing him after those so many years. He works as the commercial attaché for the Jordanian Embassy in the UAE.

See you at G6-40

Hall 6 Stand G6-40 is where you can find us exhibiting our Flagship BI Data Warehousing Solution, GIS, statistical and survey system, banking and telco solutions.

@GITEX 2008, Thanks to Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO)
and INTAJ that made this participation possible.

http://www.realsoft-me.com/





About REALSOFT

• REALSOFT is a leading Jordanian IT company with a registered branch office in Oman. The establishment of REALSOFT has accelerated the growth of business and depth of support in the field of programming solutions and system integrations. REALSOFT now employs 40+ people operating in 8 countries. Expert programmers, Quality Engineer, Marketing and service teams are working together closely to ensure the highest levels of customer satisfaction in this high technology industry. REALSOFT has a full company organization designed to make it flexible and adaptive to the changing and developing requirements of customers. Our portfolio of businesses is aligned with enduring, global growth drivers, and our employees bring extraordinary focus to meeting the needs of the people who buy and use our products and services in all the markets we serve. REALSOFT is a trusted provider of mission-critical products and services that support both local and regional needs utilizing cutting edge state-of-the-art software platforms and technologies
  
  Software offerings
• The design, development, implementation and support of E-services based state-of-the-art Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm
• The design, development, implementation, licensing and support of End-to-End of a new generation of paperless, PDA based statistical census and survey solutions.
• Enterprise Business Intelligence and Data warehouse services; data mining, data migration, data consolidation, data synchronization and data quality.
• 
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  · Higher Education Business Intelligence (BI) solution
  · Banking Risk Management Operational Data Store (ODS)
  · Statistical packages:-
  
  § Household Income and Expenditure System
  § Consumer Price Index (CPI)
  § Electronic Population Census (PDA based)
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  Success Story
  REALSOFT was the first company worldwide to deliver PDA based population census solution back in 2003, integrated with a GIS layer for data visualization and dissemination. The solution was first deployed in Oman through the Ministry of National Economy - Muscat
  
  Exhibitions
  · CeBIT 2005 – Germany
  · Gitex 2008
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  First prize winner for the Jordan Telecom most innovative project competition in the ICT sector - 2005

Professional services

BI And Data warehousing:

REALSOFT has an extensive experience in this field. It can provide both consultation and implementation of end-to-end solutions
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Oracle ADF application development framework for J2EE
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Geographic Information System (GIS)
Visualization is becoming an important part of software solutions. REALSOFT integrates several of its solution with a GIS based visual layers. We utilize several tools to satisfy this need.
· Oracle locator and Spatial Engine
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Oracle Classical Technologies
REALSOFT employees have enormous experience in Oracle Core technology and products.
· Oracle Internet Developer suite, Oracle Forms and Reports Designer (100% generation), Oracle HeadStart, Discoverer, Jdeveloper etc..
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الخط العربـي

لطالما غدوت معجبا باشكال الخط العربي لا وبل باؤلائك الذين يتقنون فنونة. لقد برع العرب عبر غابر الزمان بالكتابة وظهر نتيجة لذلك عدة انواع من الخطوط والتي لا يمكن وصفها الا انها من الروعة بمكان
ومنذ صغري وانا اقف محدقا امام كلمات مصفوفة مكتوبة بخطوط عربية غير ابه بمعانيها بل هائما في الابعاد الجمالية لتلك القطع الفنية الرائعة محدقا بالاشكال القابعة امامي مستمتعا بما تحوية من مخزون جمالي منقطع النظير مقدرا الموهبة العالية لهذا النمط من الفن
وما اثلج صدري واشعل قريحتي مؤخرا هو موقع يعلن عن دروس في الخط العربي
http://www.khtt.net/artefact-7037-en.html

Books@cafe stunning reaction

BooksATcafe was closed for serving alcohol during Ramadan, I am stunned as to why people are shocked. http://www.7iber.com/blog/2008/09/18/closing-of-bookscafe/

ever since i was a kid, i see all liquor stores close down, but the gay-centric community of books@cafe is appalled? Out of respect, ya gam3et elkair you could have shown solidarity with the vast majority of the nation and the country where you are living and respected their feeling by excersing your inclination in secrecy. Defiance shall take you no where.

Sorry, but your idiology stems from different background and different culture which obviously is not prevelent in this part of the world nor is easily accepted by your fellow citizins (and apparently government officials).

In the end, Jordan is part of the Arab and Islamic world where Ramdan is seriously observed. Any expilict lack of respect to Ramadan and values of Ramadan shall not taken lightly by the commnity at large. if you want to drink alcohol in Ramadan, it does not have to be in public

اذا ابتليتم فاستتروا

i am sorry again, but to criticize Jordan, the rule and regulation for such a cause is, from my point of view, is a silly thing. There are lots of other things that are far more valid if you want to criticise.

Actually, i have a contrary view on drinking alcohol in Jordan. I studied in the US back in the 80's and then, there were strict rules and regulation with regards to alcohol.

Drinking age is 21 ( Here you can buy and drink during your infency)
No liquor store is licensed if it is within 1-2 miles from a school (here in Amman look across Wahbee Tamaree kindergarten and tell me what you see)
Drinking and Driving is a felony (Never heard anybody tested for driving while drinking in Jordan)

And you ppl are getting too mad if you were asked to observe the holliness of the month of Ramadan

Eid -- Déjà Vu

Yesterday, when eid was announced i felt that i have this moment again -- الافطار اليوم غلط
http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2007/10/eid-tomorrow-it-is-only-politically.html


Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Yemen and others continued fasting today, and they were correct about it
Is it really that difficult to unify such occasion?
I am really disappointed that Muslim countries still cannot accept the declaration of new lunar month astronomically! I cannot understand the rational behind it

Regardless, it was a very very beautiful days weather wise today

bailout rejected احلوت اللعبة

the collapse of the soviet union stunned the world’s population as it was not easy to comprehend how a super power could end.

The financial system in the US seems to be collapsing in a shocking manner. Something I could not have believed if I were not living the moments.

Is this a proof that capitalism is bound to fail, and that we are just witnessing the start of the its decline?

What about Free Economy? The US government proposed to bailout the financial institutions for a staggering amount of 700 Billion USD. Such intervention, I believe, is really a step in the opposite direction of what Free Economy is all about!

An Immediate reaction for the rejection of the bailout plan was record drop in the Dow and Nasdaq in addition to a drastic drop in Oil prices.

What is the future going to bring us, how are the current crises going to affect us in the Middle East? Allay yostor and this is yet to be seen

What is puzzling me the most is how have this all happened? It is not easy to believe that western economists graduating from Harvard and Yale and supposedly the brightest among the economists of the world, those behind building companies that invented INTEL, AMD CPU, those behind building MAC O/S and Windows, those behind Oracle Database and IBM websphere, those behind conquering the outside space, those behind VMWARE software. those behind building FORD and Boeing , the federal bank, the world bank, Financial regulatory bodies all the CPAs the CFAs , CMAs. It is giants like Morgan Stanley, Leeman Brothers that we are talking about!!!!

Being a software veteran, I was and still is involved in complex data mining software based on neural networks, fuzzy logic, experts systems that made possible the creation of software system like Risk Managements, Credit scoring, Anti Money laundering and others that is capable of raising so many alerts before the financial situation of a bank comes even close to exposure posing risk to banks operations. Let alone, software solution that we created here locally that monitors local bank Credit facilities classification and impairment provisions based on tough instruction put forward by the Central Bank of Jordan. Such software monitors and audits the banks credit facilities to ensure that banks have enough reserves against bad debts. Don’t tell me that such software systems do not exist in the States. And where did Basel II regulations taking us!

What am I trying to imply?
Conspiracy theory?
Is this a way to suck in the extra Oil money that oil producing countries made?
How much did governments and investors of Kuwait, KSA, UAE etc.. Lose?
Is this an epidemic that is going to sweep the entire world?
Well, after reading this, I am sure many people will tell me
الاسلام هو الحل

يا فرحة ما تمت

In my last post about The world's largest atom smasher at CERN, I obviously failed to hide my excessive excitement and enormous joy about the commencement of the 27-kilometer circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider LHC under the Swiss-French border.
I Guess Newton’s third law rules supreme; "For every action there is a reaction, equal in magnitude but opposite in direction". Well currently, the same immense feelings still overwhelm me, however, and in accordance with Newton third law (opposite in direction), it is a feeling of disappointment. It has recently come to my knowledge that the smasher has gone out of commission due to a faulty electrical connection, and as such it will need at least 2 more months to be fixed.

The $10 billion LHC particle collider, in the design and construction stages for more than two decades, is the world's largest atom smasher. It fires beams of protons from the nuclei of atoms around the tunnels at nearly the speed of light.It then causes the protons to collide, revealing how the tiniest particles were first created after the "big bang," which many theorize was the massive explosion that formed the stars, planets and everything.

There is a reason why it going to take long to fix the fault. To increase the efficiency, the smasher operates at near absolute zero (for those who are scientifically inclined, it is Zero Kelvin or -273). Warming up the environment and cooling it down again simply takes time!

ammar

End of World

Are we going to witness the end of the world anytime soon?The Large Hadron Collider LHC -- a $9 billion particle accelerator designed to simulate conditions of the Big Bang that created the physical Universe -- was switched on at 0732 GMT at CERN, Switzerland. Today Sept 10th might be a day that history shall remember (or not quite so) for generations to come Scientist shall experiment the effect of collisions of Protons being fired around 27Km tunnel in opposite direction. Some scientists fear that such experiment may lead to the creation of Black Holes. So What? Ok, Blacks holes are very small particles with huge mass with gravitational forces so great that can swallow anything around it, even light (and hence the name Black). Well if this is true, then such energy is capable of swallowing planet earth and as such would mark the end of the world. If such a thread exists, then why physicists are massively excited about such an experiment
-Confirm theories that physicists have been studying including the existence of an extra dimension.
-The detection of a particle called Higgs Boson which is assumed to exist but never detected. Such particle is also known God particle. If LHC experiments prove the existence of Higgs Boson, the reason why matter has mass is revealed.
-Experiments will recreate the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after the Big Bang and therefore, try to confirm or reestablish how the world evolved.
-Explain why is the universe is ever expanding at an accelerating rate?
-Explain How gravity works?

I am sure there is more, but this is enough for an inquisitive mind to get keyed up for a new era of knowledge discovery. Despite its vast and complex appearance, Our universe is actually ORDERED , RATIONAL and ELEGENT. It is this fact finding experiments that show that the cosmos conforms to mathematical equations so symmetrical and satisfying, they can only be described as beautiful. No wonder Einstein said God does not play dice with the universe.

Can you people imagine that never anybody during the course of history of humanity endeavored for an experimental project that big before
I cannot wait

Amman Sept 10th , 2008
Ramadan 10, 1429
Ammar Sajdi
http://www.e-ammar.com/

My first website - a primitive one

When I first felt like having a presence on the Web, Life was simple for me then. I did not know about HTML, Front page or any of the known Web authoring tools. Therefore, I decided to use an intuitive approach with ubiquitous methods.

The apparatus:
Pen
Paper
Scanner

The first web site consisted of only one page with the following components (of course the layout of the original website - which never saw the light- had a phenomenal asthetic dimesnion to it, for its time, and the components you see are just isolated individual component laid out randomly ) :-

Weather Corner

Wafayat

Tahanee Corner

Exit button

Home Button

technology corner

Head to Head

Google is a declaring a serious confrontation in the arena of web browser with the introduction of its CHROME browser. I cannot hide the fact that i am a firm believer in Google and as such, i downloaded the product on the same day it was announced. Already, news about security holes are looming, but remember this in only a BETA version. One nice thing about CHROME is that in the URL address field, you can either type a real URL or a search clause.
Is CHROME yet another browser? Is the world really in need for another browser? In fact, Google claims that that CHROME is not another simple browser, it is a platform to run web applications!Is this the start of a "head to head" competition with Microsoft? Not to forget, that Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo (45 Billion USD offer) that Yahoo turned down last may. Yahoo then signed an agreement with Google to share advertisement space. Microsoft seems to be seriously interested in invading the Web space through the acquisition of yahoo! and google does not just want to watch.
As a matter of fact, if CHROME succeeds in becoming the hub of a web based cloud computing model that necessarily obviates the need for Windows, MAC etc..

81 Years old letter

من عبق التاريخ

Back in 1927 an earthquake hit the eastern Mediterranean region. It affected many areas in Palestine and Jordan. But one of the most hardly hit was the city of Nablus. Obviously, I was there at that time, but my grandfather (Who passed away a long time ago) told me about it on several occasion because he was working for the public works at that time. Anyway, the letter on the left is an interesting historical peace that is worth publishing. Until today, a customer answer for certain question that asks about things in the deep past, would be “Sanet il hazzeh” The year of the quake.

Histroy has special taste to it

Smile

A smile in the face can make you content if you were angry and vice versa.
Smile, it comes at no extra cost

rgds

It is R rated

Sex and the City is a movie that i watched this evening at home. It is a silly movie with quite a bit of naughty scenes. If it were not for such exposed scenaries, it would fit for teangers as well.
It is akin to Old Eygptian movies, where the actors exhibt a conspicious tendency towards exaggeration in their acting. However a phenomenal charactersitic in Eygptian movies is the fact that during the 2 hours everthing goes wrong, and all of a suddent, and towards the last few moments of the movie, things seem to turn out for the best (happy ending).
I like such twists in those movies, because i live real life moments every minute I breath and as such when i watch a movie i look for something different, and i do not want to be reminded of real life situation then.

Well, Eyptians lead the way in movies they produced in the 40's, 50's and 60's and now the Americans are catching up with a manifestation called Sex and the City.

Mystery solved

Olympic diving is one of my favorite sports activities to watch. In the past few days i was wondering why divers shower between each dive.

I check yahoo main page for two reasons (almost daily) to check on main news and to check out the finanical market. While i was doing that just now, the main featured news on the main page of http://www.yahoo.com/ was Why showers always shower? (corrrection: Why Divers always shower?) I was really excited to question something and find the answer on yahoo main page.


According to the featured article http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/The-mystery-of-the-showering-divers?urn=oly,100472

"Divers shower in between each dive to keep their muscles warm after getting out of the pool. The temperature of the pool water and the air are usually different (the pool is usually around 80 degrees, with the air temperature between 68 and 72 degrees). This difference can cause muscle tightness. To combat this, divers warm up in either the showers or a hot tub."

ammar

moments of anguish

It was early this morning that i received with sorrow news about the loss of a contemporary voice whose words transcended beyond the frontiers of his homeland Palestine to the entire world.
A poet who leaves an eternal legacy of legendary master pieces that simply pierced through ears, the minds and the hearts of the masses

A great loss of an unprecedented talent that will definitely leave a vacuum so hard to be refilled.

Mohamoud Darweesh has passed away yesterday Aug 9th, 2008

Ammar Sajdi
Aug 10th, 2008

THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF NAGASAKI August 9, 1945

At 11:02 a.m., at an altitude of 1,650 feet, Fat Man exploded over Nagasaki. The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 21 kilotons, 40 percent greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb.

Although the destruction at Nagasaki has generally received less worldwide attention than that at Hiroshima, it was extensive nonetheless. Almost everything up to half a mile from ground zero was completely destroyed, including even the earthquake-hardened concrete structures that had sometimes survived at comparable distances at Hiroshima. According to a Nagasaki Prefectural report "men and animals died almost instantly" within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of the point of detonation. Almost all homes within a mile and a half were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper instantly burst into flames as far away as 10,000 feet from ground zero. Of the 52,000 homes in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and 5,400 more seriously damaged. Only 12 percent of the homes escaped unscathed

source:Office of History and resources US dept of energy

The atomic bomb resulted from research intially carried out in Germany and then moved to the USA. The following is an letter written by Albert Einstine to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt urging the US government to support research in this area before the German Government leads the way in building an exteremely powerful bomb (later known as the Manhattan project).

note: double click to read the letter clearly

human digital billboard

This is how to descirbe the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics games at Beijing. Thounsands of human bodies harmonized to illumiate a simulation of an electronic billboard.

It was nothing less than spectacular, while firework exploded over the national stadium.

A Car in Amman

This is the 2008 model, but when i coincidently spotted the older model yesterday evening in the street of amman, i would immensly argue and assert that it is looking as good as ever and there is little differernce (if any) i could glimps compared to a year ago. Pitete as it may look, but certainly spacious in heart. While mostly pleasent, it demonstrates unforegivingly monsterous reactions at times. . A little hickup though, do not try to out performe its natural limits, because then, you cannot foresee what you are getting yourself into,; it could simply as well let you down. Therefore, one should not compare to others, but suffice it to say; it shines out brightly in its class. In case you are wandering, I never owned it and probably never will. Obviously, because what i own , albiet classical, stands out as the ultimate of its class. Additionally, these generation appeared rather recent, at which time, intricate decisions had already been properly taken.

Verdict: Modern, stylish, attractive and fun, but fragile in handling the demanding ruggedness required in this part of the world

Business as usual

Driving up hill was definitely a daunting task, but hell, it was well worth it
The hotel is overlooking the sea as you can see, the other side of the hotel overlooks green valleys and high mountains.
Down at the beach it feels really humid, but up here, it was really nice. The hotel is a 5 star hotel, but strangely, the service was not!!!!
The real view is breath taking; this picture has got its resolution reduced to decrease its size, but still it gives the impression.

Sun Set at the beach

Vacation time

Starting tomorrow, i will be on a 5 days vacation.
Why tomorrow specifically? because i thought tomorrow is a day off due to Isra2 and Mi3raj occasion. Right? Worng!
Yes it is Isra2 occasion, but it is no longer a holiday.

Reservation was made two weeks back, and as such, Vacation goes on!

Will report back to work next monday Aug 3rd, until then, nothing related to databases, j2ee, ETL, OLAP or bits and bytes please

A Memoir of Moods and Madness

An unquiet mind, this paperback book is authored by Kay Redfield Jamison
I ordered the book and i will receive it anytime soon.

Unquiet Mind

you cannot simply snap out of it

Welcome back

The house of your dreams

On Thursday July 10th, we held school re-union for many of the pre-historic school friends. The venue was the house of my grandmother, the late Abdul Raheem Jardaneh - Jabal Amman. The house was built in 1935 at a street previously known as Mango Str, or Asfoor Str, but formally Omar Ibn Al-Khatab just 100 meter before Books@cafe. The house was renovated and decorated by my aunte Zaha Jardaneh Mango who posses a natural talent in interior design. The first invited guest walked in and then out thinking that they were entering a museum and not a house. The weather was magnificent and the setting nothing less than magical. I took a few pictures to explain why

A Warm Welcom

A little bit of History

One day back in 2003, 2004 I used this room as a study room while discussing Final projects for a group of students

a miniature dining room (this room was one an office ). Please note the floor

Same room but zooming at one of the walls where a full size painting of Jerusalem fills the entire wall

looking inside the same room from the Garden

looking outside from the main entrance

This is a picture taking at a low altitude. The ceramics are the original 1935

Beautiful formation

This is a Radio bought in 1937. This is Pre Transistor Radio, meaning that this Radio was built before the invention of the Transistor (probably using Vaccum Tube technology)

Part of the Garden

Also in the Garden

Some of the Guest: Nadia, Lara, Lama, Ghadeer, Maha and Ni3mat

There is also an old library and could not but take a few shots of some books that emanate history

look at the date on which this book was purchased (21/12/1920)

This book was published in 1895 (some 113 years ago) and is as good as new

So, you think you can read Arabic, read on, it is an Organic Chemstry book. By the way, my grandfather was a pharmacist





Read the following section as well

Congratulations

and Welcome back!

It is home coming season; People graduating from colleges, expats coming for summer vacation, however, foremost among those coming back are the Lebanese heroes who were held captive in Israeli jails. And foremost among those, is Sameer Qintar. Sameer was caught in Nahariya while executing a heroic mission way back then (1979). He was 17. Sameer was sentenced for over than 500 years. He was back to Lebanon as part of the Hizbulallah - Israel prisoners swap.

The IRONY is the following

Jordan and Egypt signed peace treaties with Israel long time ago and as we speak there are still Jordanian and Egyptian prisoners in Israeli jails. Lebanon on the other hand, did not sign and peace treaty and got its prisoners Free! Any lessons learned?

أخترت لكم

Travelling again

I am on my way to Muscat - Oman for two nights then another two nights at Manama Bahrain before i am back to Amman.
I have not been traveling lately. My last trip was a 2 day visit to Dubai on May 13th.
Business trips are no longer exciting to me at all. I try to avoid them when i can. However, they are inevitable.

what to exepct! well High temperature, high humidity, high hotel prices~

Pollution

This time i mean INFORMATION POLLUTION. I was hit by it. I can be diagnosed with new form of Illness. I am informationally polluted. OR, as some may like to call it. I am suffering from Information Overload.

When i first thought of it, it was kind of a humerous gesture on my side. But when i searched the net, i found a lot being written on this subject.

Its toll is becoming obvious on me. Even today, when i wanted to jot a few words on this blog, i had difficulty remebering how to login. Yes, i have not been in the best of my moods to write anything lately, but it has not been that long of a time to wonder how to login.

The acceleration at which information channels are filled and refilled is nothing but amazing. Needless to say, people like me, working in the field of information technology suffer the most. Without going into details, 16 years back, ORACLE corp owned around 16 products ( i could at that time list them along with their prices). One Oracle reporesentative told me last week that, as we speak, there are about 10,000 products. I do not know how true this is, but let us assume that there are about 1000. Just thinking of this immedaitely instigates a sense of loss, distraction and frustration being a person ambitious to maintain a goold level of knowledge about them. Well this is going to be a dauting and an impossible task. Trying to abandon them is just as stressful.

To get a feel that i am not kidding, this is an extract from "http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/chinneg.html" than can shed some light

"The acceleration of change is accompanied by an increase in the information needed to keep up with all these developments. This too leads to psychological, physical and social problems. A world-wide survey (Reuters, 1996) found that two thirds of managers suffer from increased tension and one third from ill-health because of information overload. The psychologist David Lewis, who analysed the findings of this survey, proposed the term "Information Fatigue Syndrome" to describe the resulting symptoms. Other effects of too much information include anxiety, poor decision-making, difficulties in memorizing and remembering, and reduced attention span (Reuters, 1996; Shenk, 1997). These effects merely add to the stress caused by the need to constantly adapt to a changing situation"

Find the Lost History

Even if you must go all the way to China, said the prophet, “Seek Knowledge”
In an era when the relationship between Islam and the West seems fraught with misunderstanding, how many of us realize that Muslim intellectual achievement was once envy of the world? In magnificent centers of learning, from Damascus to Baghdad and Cairo, mathematicians and a thousand year ago developed, algorithms, and trigonometry- the foundations upon which modern technology is build. Inventors devised the crankshaft and early versions of the torpedo and the parachute. Physicians’ techniques ranged from orthodontia to asthma care to tracheotomy. And Muslim astronomers calculated our planet’s diameter and circumference t a remarkable degree of accuracy- at a time when Europeans thought the Earth was flat

If you liked what you have just read, you shall enjoy more reading the book. It is called “Lost History, the enduring legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers and Artists.
You will find the above paragraph on the leaflet.

The book is authored by Michael Hamilton Morgan, and forwarded by His majesty Kind Abdulla second of Jordan.

My mother asked me to order it for her through Amazon, and I ordered two.
It is valuable book indeed. A must have

Ammar Sajdi

When it come to this, i hate suspence

spontaneity, suspense could spice up one's life. However, when it comes to traveling, this kind of suspense really stresses me immensely. Yesterday, i received a call from Dubai summoning upon me to be present their as of this evening, and therefore, you need to make last minute cancellation to your meeting and do last minutes formidable hotel and flight booking, not knowing whether you will make it on time or not. After I made all the arrangements, I received last minute cancellations as well. Quite honestly, i was relieved. Home sweet Home

Ammar

In your spare time

When i am not practicing work related hoppies, i am spending some of my spare time playing around with a google software product called sketchup. As its name implies, it is a productivity tool in the domain of computer sketching. You will like it, download and enjoy.
I am also falling in love with another freeware product called DotProject. This latter product shall make a grand entry to our REALSOFT enviornment pretty soon. It is a web enabled tasks oriented project management tool which will help all of us montior project management tasks as well as bug tracking via the internet. You can check this product out (www.dotproject.net). Finally, this product can integrate to our open source bug tracking system called mantis

Global Warming

Records reveal that Britain is witnessing the warmest weather for the first two weeks of May, 2008 since 1772. Additonally, some scientists speculate that in 100 years you can kiss London good by, unless, of course, you can afford a submarine.

Ammar sajdi

Born Again

This week i was introduced to the world of MUMPS. No it is not the epidemic that hit you when you were young (Painful swelling of the salivary glands caused by viral disease) a.k.a Abu Dhgaim. Rather it is MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System), or alternatively M, is a programming language created in the late 1960s, originally for use in the healthcare industry. Since i spent almost every day of may career life working, reading, training and practicing Oracle and Oracle derivatives software and services, I became so overwhelmed by ORACLE to an extent that i feel that the world evolves around it. Well, and obviously, there is a lot more going around the world. There are communities, project, mission critical applications developed by the MUMPS language over MUMPS database. Such application are both in health and financial sectors. As of today, there are numerous sites that are running mumps. For example Bank of England and Barclays Bank, also it is used by Ameritrade, the largest online trading service in the US with over 12 billion transactions per day.

I know of no installation in Jordan, but something seems to be coming soon as there is a Jordanian tender calling for HIMS package called Vista (MUMPS based) http://www.rss2go.net/topic/national_healthcare (Bad news for local HIMS companies)
I came to know about MUMPS when a customer is Saudi Arabia was asking us if we can build a Data Warehouse solution for a health care system which is running MUMPS! my initial feedback was SAY WHAT? I know about a lot of things in this domain, but not this one. In the World of vista i am only three days old. I downloaded the product on Linux, built a database, and ran the Hello world example. If we take the project, i guess, my i will extend my MUMPS life and may even celebrate MUMPS birthdays, if not, my MUMPS life might as well just nostalgically evade

14 degrees at 12 pm

Since it is May and it has been feeling really cool the past two days, some people may think that weather conditions are not normal. in Reality, it is quite normal to wintess a couple of rather cloudy and cool days in May. Light rain is also normal. It did not rain in Amman, but it did in Jerusalem and Beirut during the past two days

Oracle BI Enterprise Edition

Yesterday, we finished an interesting 5 days session with Oracle, where we were introduced to Oracle's BI solution called BI EE. This suite is actually what Oracle inherited from its acquistion of Siebel. I must say that the functionalityies are not new to me, however, the user experience and look and feel are impressive. Especially, when it comes to Bi Answers and BI dashboard products. Soon, we shall also be exposed to IBM congnos after discussing IBM request to expand thier Software Operation in the area.
I have obtained a VM-WARE Oracle BI ready installation, and i am looking forward to examining the product even further this week-end. Another product that we were introduced to is Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) ,which is also a result of an acquistion from Synopsis. This product is ELT tool rather than ETL tool. When compared to OWB (Oracle Warehouse Builder), there are certain advantages especially in its capability with working with several different data sources and its capablity to do some transformation at the sources.
In the end, I have come to the conclusion to the fact that neither OWB nor Oracle discoverer superior products but at the same time , do not fall short of the other new products

Quran and Science

قال تعالى
والشمس تجري لمستقر لها ذلك تقدير العزيز الحكيم

سورة يس الاية 38

The Quran sura 36 verse 38
In translation: The Sun runs its course to a settled place.

Scientifically, please refer to the Book Observational Astronomy (by Scott Bireny , Guillermo Gonzalez and David Oesper, P73 which says:-

"The point on the sky towards which the sun (and therefore the solar system) moves is called the solar Apex"

Modern Science has therefore, ascertain, that there is indeed a point towards which the sun settles. This is in perfect harmony with the revelation of the holy Quran.

Actually, the inspiration of the idea came to me from a book called The Bible, the Quran and science by Maurice Bucaille that introduced me to the term solar Apex. I searched the net and found the scientific reference described above

Ammar Sajdi

Conservation of Gravity

Mankind is constantly trying to conserver resources to sustain life. But are we doing enough

We are trying to conserve consumption of oil, and in fact scientists are keenly seeking alternative sources of energy. We are trying to conserve electricity consumption. We are trying to conserve Water consumption and trying to desalinate Sea water.

The intersting part: Can anybody deny that Gravity is a force that keeps us tied to ground? And if we try to defy that force by climbing a mountain, we get tiered? Since it is always acting on us, we ought to be consuming it. Can we persume that eventually this force will be used up like oil, water, TIME, age etc..

Can you imagine how life will be when (or if) Gravity is consumed?

for example, when we eat, how can food then move toward our stomach?

If you feel that life without gravity would not be plausible, then wouldn't that warrent a movement for the conservation of Gravity?

The more interesting question is How can then we conserve gravity?

sample suggestion

1) Live in Ground floors

2)Park your car Down hill

3)keep you bed a close as possible to the floor, or better yet, sleep on the floor

4) Avoid using elevators

5) Actively lose weight

...

Public awareness campaign are required to alter citizens about the catastrophic consequences of using up a valuable resource such as Gravity. Public attention is geared towards Ozone layer, global warmer, while conservation of gravity is total ignored.

I just want to mention that this idea has not just poped into my mind; it has, in fact, been a concern of my for quite sometime now.

Ammar

An Apt in Aqaba - Jordan

last year on April 13, i posted a blog about an unscheduled trip to Aqaba http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2007/04/spontaneity.html

This firday, we did the same with some difference

1) We decided to go on Thursday (one day advance notice) rathat than on the same day
2) We got the keys for our apt at Aqaba Talay Bay (www.talabay.jo), rather than watching construction
3) It was so hot (also in Amman)
4) We left at 9:30 rather than 11:30
5) We were back by 8:15 rather than 9:15
6) I bought a pair of Adidas shoes rather than Clarks

everything else, pretty the same.

Now that we have an appartment is Aqaba, are we going to go often??? Big Question

Ammar Sajdi

Do you really think you can "do database Design"

Software industry in Jordan is pretty progressive with, however, about 90% of of software system involving in a way or another the usage of some database system. Graduates of Jordanian Unviersities specializing in Computer Science related dept are barely exposed to database concepts. Obviously this is due to the fact that the Educational System and the Industry are completely decoupled. My personal opinion, the Jordanian computer science graduate barely knows the ABC's of Database concepts. This is catastrophic because he/she shall be spending alsmost the entirty of their office hours writing applications that heavily depend on databases.

while interviewing new employees, i tend to ask basic questions about basic database questions, like defining the second normal form, explaining what concurrency and consistency is, the basics meaning of a transaction, Types of Joins etc. To my surprise initially, but otherwise lately, very, very few understand Normal Forms, or yet, what precisely a relation means in a Relational Database Management System.

My fears and paranoia continues till after employment, becuase, I have reasons to believe that many of those graduates deliver system while still do not have clear, precise and scientific understanding about topics that they spend a large portion of their career working with.

Current, previous and future IT emplyess should read the following series of articles to ensure that they are equipped with what is necessary to carry out your job correctly. Read on and assess yourself

http://database-programmer.blogspot.com/2007/12/database-skills-complete-contents.html

Ammar Sajdi

Towards a computerized methodology for computerization

We build software solution that run on computers to help people better run their businesses. We use computers to build these software solutions. Yet, computers help us to better run or computer enablement business (it is a vicious circle). But i am excited about some advances that will help us manage building software solutions using computers.
During testing, we find bugs, when the system becomes big and the no of developers grows, it is not easy to follow up on bugs. A couple of year ago, we started using a software tool called Mantis. It is an open source bug tracking software than runs PHP, Apache and MySQL (The LAMP combination, you know). It is a very helpful tool, where developers are assigned tasks to solve bugs. Unsurprisingly, we also use software like MS Project to follow up our project plan. There are Open Source Project planning software like DotProject. Not very exciting so far. What is more exciting however is the fact that you can integrate Mantis with DotProject. This will effectively link bug fixing task with your project plan. In other words, once a bug is fed into Mantis and assigned to a developer. The project plan shall immediately reflect this as a new task in the project plan and shall also reflect this task in terms of time plan in your project plan (Gantt Chart)
You have no clue how much joy is brought to my soul whenever an attempt is made towards reaching a Chaos free software development endeavor.
Mantis is already implemented in our office. DotProject is not, neither is the integration between both. Any volunteers?

Dubai, what has changed

It has been a while since my last visit to Dubai. To be exact my last visit was some 15 months back. What has changed since?
If you looked in the skyline before, you would see hight rise. Now , you would see high rise, and more high rise

If you drove on Shiek Zaied Road, you would be stuck in traffic Jams. Now, you would be stuck in traffic jams, and more traffic jams.

If you booked in a hotel, you would spend big money. Now you spend big money and bigger money (A five star hotel is 300 USD easy - Per night + taxes)

other than that nothing has changed except of course with the high rise, traffic more people are found around.

But to be fair, i found the weather more pleasant that expected for this time of the year

I came yesterday very late at night, and leaving tomorrow morning to Bahrain. Bahrain is still more reasonable.

Snow in London

April Snow in London is not common, neither is the fact that Jordan witnessed no Rain during the entire month of March. Year 2008 is going to be a tough year for everybody in Jordan. Oil prices jumped ridiculously (Diesel doubled and selling at around 88 cent / liter), water is scarce, rent is sky rocketing, electricity tariffs increased and I am afraid that Humous and Falafel meal shall soon become “a delicacy”

ammar

Mohammad Rateb Nabulsi

I was at dinner party two days back where the guest of honor was Dr. Mohammad Rateb Nabulsi, a Syrian scholar. Even though i was not feeling well due to severe cold conditions, but i have to say that i enjoyed Dr. Nabulsi interpretation of many controversial issues in religion domain. He is very elaborate, yet concise with a wealth of information that is barely surpassed by the most prominent scholars of the world. Adding to pthe leasure of listening to him was his eloquent language and organized logic.

backup your computer data

undoubtedly, we all have important data residing on our computers. That may include emails, important documents , financial sheets, digital photos, database files etc..

data can get lost: your hard disk can break down, a virus can wipe out your files, your laptop can be stolen, let alone fire, water floods etc

having said that, backup strategy is your insurance against a tragedy.

Human tend to fall in to the following categories backup - wise

1- Do not understand the need for backup
2- Understand the need for backup, but always look at the bright side and as such can dispel any backup related obsessions or flashes
3- Understand the need but either lazy or incapable of performing it
4- Understand the need, and are taking it religiously

Well, one day a disaster will take place and you will loose what can be indispensable data. Taking regular backup can be a daunting and not to mention a very boring process. I searched the internet and found some user friendly tools that should prove very helpful in assisting you to create an effective backup strategy. Most of these tools can allow you to take incremental backup. An incremental backup only take the changes between your last backup and the current one , thus making your backup much faster

Anyway, i will name a few products, and you can search the net and by using the following search words for more tools

file duplicator, File synchronize, File mirror, Mirror Disk

you will find tools that are prices from a few bucks to several hundreds.

I tried the following two products

ViseVersa http://www.tgrmn.com
Titan Backup http://www.neobytesolutions.com/

You should not know have an excuse for loosing data. Please remeber that it is not enough to take your backup to a different hard disk within your computer, it should be taken to an external device and stored in a safe place

Happy backing-up (or backup-ing)
Ammar sajdi

We never cease to learn - Cadre

The word كادر is a common word that is used in the Arabic language to describe a team of people to deliver a certain job. Before today, i would have sworn my life that it is a word of Arabic origin. Today i have received from a customer a request for a quotation. Within the document i came across the following

RealSoft shall p0rovide a capable technical cadre to be on call to correct any breakdowns ...

Not that i am a linguistic wiz, but it was the first time that i read this usage. Wikipedia came to the rescue with the following

"Cadre (from the French; pronounced /ˈkɑːdreɪ/) are the backbone of an organization, usually a political organization ..... The term is also commonly used in other venues to indicate an "original" or "leadership" group, i.e. the "first set" of users of a system who then will act as the seed-group who gain initial experience with a system, in order to facilitate its later use by a more general population"

Amazing!, i added a new easy work to my English vocabulary

Just for the Fun of It

Test your personality

visit the site http://www.kisa.ca/personality/


my results
Introverted (I) 57% Extraverted (E) 43%
Intuitive (N) 68% Sensing (S) 32%
Thinking (T) 65% Feeling (F) 35%
Judging (J) 95% Perceiving (P) 5%

ولد الهدى

ولد الهدى فالكائنات ضياء وفم السماء تبسم وثناء

Arab Bank and an attempt to abandon the dark ages

This is not the first time, as a company we closed most of our accounts in the Arab bank due to the fact that Arab Bank thinks that we have nothing to do in this world but spend all of our time finishing up transaction with the bank. Unfortunately, i still have a personal account.
Last week I received a call from Arab Bank telling me that they renewed my Credit Card and that i should be receiving a new credit card with Aramex. Within a couple of day, i received it. I ended up with two cards, the old card that expires at End of March, 2008 and the new Card expires 2010. Today, i went to the Swiefieh Branch at 8:30 sharp in order to cancel the old one and activate the new one. The women was helpful enough to explain that I need to call customer service center in order to activate the Credit Card. She gave me the phone no. Still i could not understand why activating the card cannot be done in person. The reason why i showed up in person was because the Arab Bank built a culture in me that I could not do business with them over the phone; in other words, you have to do the walking and you cannot make your fingers do the walking. They always ask you to come in person, present IDs, and several other documents including, but not limited to, your Electricity Bill.

It was a joyful moment to me as i thought no more parking issue, or queue up, the Arab bank finally realized that channels are open! And finally we are out of the dark ages

I called the customer service no
A lady politely answered, and as you would expect, she talks like a recorder. Nothing surprising there, since during my career, I developed a customer service management system and i know that scripts are created to dictate how the customer service agent talks

I told her that i received a new credit card and i wanted to activate it. She immediately barraged me with huge amount of question

Your name
Your birthday
Your Credit Card no
Your account no
and the killer question: what is your current balance?
I answered politely that i could not remember the balance! She said that she cannot do anything, because she needs the balance ( I suspect, the balance is needed as a means of authenticating me)

As part of my profession, we develop web solutions; some of them involve making money transaction over the net. I understand what Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is , i know what public key encryption is! I fully understand what authentication, authorization and non repudiation is!. I read about most of the available means and mechanism of establishing one's identify, but this new Arab-bank innovative what-is-your-balance identity management technology is quite new to me. I want to ask the arabbank not to bother to patent its new invention; since I seriously doubt that security sensitive institutions would be particularly keen in using this new identity technology

Fine, maybe the Arabbank has pioneered technology that i am still short of understanding, but surely, i can still understand instruction.

When i first received a call to tell me that i would be receiving my new card, the lady did not give me instructions that when i call their customer service center, i need to memorize my current balance

When i received the Card, no written instruction exists in the envelop telling me that i needed to memorize my current balance when i call the customer care center

Finally, and most annoyingly, when i walked in Face to Face to the Swiefieh Branch, the lady, who gave me the customer care phone no also did not tell me that since i was already in the bank, I might as well inquire about my balance before calling them.

I asked the lady what to do, she told me that I need to login to the internet and inquire about my balance – That was no solution as I was not connected nor did I have the password ready. The other solution she offered is for me to go to an ATM machine and inquire about my account. Back to the Dark ages!!!!
Drive your car that is coasting 1 USD/Liter, find your way in the busy streets, find an ATM machine, find a parking and inquire about your account. Then call back,, we are 24 x 7 service.

The Arab bank seems to be still living in the 60's when the streets were empty and used to take you at most 10 minutes to go from one side of Amman to the other... When parking was never an issue, when you had only one account (if any). When you could spare the entire day to visit the bank! and most importantly, when no body was constantly claiming that the investment climate in Jordan is advancing, when plans on top level are been made to encourage foreign investment.
This requires no Einstein to foresee, nor a noble prize winner to realize that, No Foreign Investment shall be seen, because as things stand, Local investment shall seize.

If Arab bank wants to dictate its regulation, this is absolutely fine with me, on one condition, not to expect us to be fortune tellers, but at least make the instructions clear

Finally, Arab bank does not really have to bother with this. Further discussion with Arab bank shall be to no avail. Arab bank has made a record 1 Billion USD in profit and can surely sustain business without the disarray that I m causing. The best solution is to close the account and cancel the Credit Card, I am sure it is an easier process that activating the damn credit card

Ammar Sajdi

Disconnected

this year, and in order to limit errands that i miss during traveling, i prepared a check list! when i pack, i just check it to make sure I put an end for the habbit of leaving things behind.

Well, It seems that i forgot to add my mobile on this list.
I came back from bahrain yesterday without my mobile. Where exactly it is, is something that remians to be found.

It feels good to be mobileless,, at least you get some privacy.. which makes me pose the following question

Were mobiles invented for the convenience of the mobile owner or for the convenience of others? In my case, i feel my mobile serves the others more than it serves me

Electronic mailing is Archiac indeed

The hosting service that i user for e-ammar also offer email hosting.
I have never used it nor given the email to anybody nor opened the inbox.
I came to know that fact that i have this email by pure accident when the hosting service sent me an alert saying that i am running out of disk space.
Well there is about 13000 emails , and not only that, but some of these were sent back in 1969

Barack Hussien Obama fatwa

Two interesting things

First:After gaining grounds in US elections, US media and Obama's competitors are over stressing Obama's middle name (Hussien). What does the middle name of black american person in the allegedly free America signify. I mean in the land of equal oppurtunities and the land of no discrimination (or is not). If obama's middle name was William, would this give less issues to worry about towards his chances of winning the US election in the Land of Human Rights. My advice to parents in the US comeing from non-William or non-Jeffersson ethnic background is to think twice before giving names to their kids. (in a nutshell avoid , Mohammad, Ali, etc, you never know, one day you might be deprived from attending school based on your name or middle name)

Obama was born in Hawaii, from a Kynian father (Foreign student father) and a snow white American woman from Kansan. His parents were divorced and his father, Hussien, returned to his home town and died in a car accident in 1982. His mother re-married to another foreign student, but this time from Indonessia. Barack therefore, spent a few years in Jakarta during his early childhood before returning back to the land of equal oppurtunities. Obamas mother died of Cancer in 1995.

Second: Time magazine uses the term fatwa as if this word is now adopted as an official english word. (http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1718255,00.html?xid=rss-topstories)

"The pundits were quick to applaud McCain's fatwa against the use of Hussein, and broadcasters began trying to report on the controversy without actually saying the name too much, dancing around the offending word as if they were doing a segment on The Vagina Monologues. In both cases, the word comes off as not quite illicit, but certainly a little taboo. "


I search the net and found an entry for fatwa in Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fatwa)


fatwa
One entry found.
fatwa
Main Entry: fat·wa
Pronunciation: \ˈfət-wə, ˈfät-wä\
Function: noun
Etymology: Arabic fatwā
Date: circa 1889
: a legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader

A step closer to joining the EU - Turkey

Of course, the pcitures below are not the real reason why Turkey cannot join the EU , however, some poeple would like to think that the images explain why. I just think these pictures are funny, and i am not sure that they are really taken in Turkey

My new toy

My new toy is a weather station called WMR100 A from Oregon Scientific.

What is a weather station? Simply it is a collection of sensors that can give precise reading about weather conditions. I installed the weather station at the roof of the building. It can give accurate reading for the following measures

Temperature

Atmospheric Pressure

Humidity

Wind Direction

Wind Speed

UV

Heat Index

Wind Chill

Precipitation

The reading are send to a digital base station where you can read the measurment. No cables are needed, because it is all wireless. You just kick back ,relax and get the reading from the comform of your sitting room. If you dont like the base station, well, you can hook the base station to your laptop via a USB connection, design you Dash Board and there you go

As you can see, above, you get instantenous live readings, for example, as i write, the outside temperature is Amman is 0.5 C, the wind chill is -4.5, the wind speed is 20 Km/hr gusting to 50 Km/hr. What the dash board does not tell is the fact that it is snowing right now (2:10 AM)

Ammar

After shocks

A 5.2 earthquake hit southern Lebanon yesterday at 12:36 and was felt in Amman.
Several shocks were registered in the past few months.
If fact, i read a couple of times, reports by Israeli spokesmen that they are expecting a major earth quack to hit the region similar to the one that affected Palestine and Jordan back in 1927.
I have also read reports by Jordanian officials denying these statement based on the assumption that science has not yet reached a way to predict earth quacks. Having said that, this morning newspapers warned that citizens of Jordan are to expect a series of earth quakes this coming month. Does this mean that now we can predict earth quacks, and then, what about what the Israelis are predicting!

While still taking about prediction, it is worth while mentioning that snow is expected in Amman starting Monday afternoon. It seems to me that we will have a white Tuesday

Ammar

The Witch of Portobello

I started reading this Novel on my way back from Muscat 2 weeks back.
It was an interesting novel and presented subtle ideas through the mysterious personality of Athena (A Romanian Gypsy adopted by a Lebanese family) Athena was given the name Sherine Khalil by her family.

The rather unusual personality and attitude of Athena (Sherine) coupled with profound philosophy by the author makes the novel attractive (at the beginning). Later on, things do not sustain the excitement level, as i felt that the events become mundane with some redundancy to an extent that i am no longer attracted to the novel, but yet determined to finish it.

Some excerpts from the novel


"Everyone is looking for the perfect teacher, but although their teachings might be divine, teachers are all too human, and that's something people find hard to accept. Don't confuse the teacher with the lesson, the ritual with the ecstasy, the transmitter of the symbol with the symbol itself. Tradition is linked to our encounter with the forces of life and not with the people who bring this about. But we are weak: we ask the Mother to send us guides, and all she sends are signs to the road we need to follow.
Pity those who seek for shepherds, instead of longing for freedom! An encounter with the superior energy is open to anyone but remains far from those who shift responsibility onto others. Our time on this earth is sacred, and we should celebrate every moment"

It is paragraphs like these that really made me enjoy the novel. However, the style started strong at the beginning, but starting fading away as you flip on pages

Another nicely depicted dramatic situation is clear in page 41, when Sherine Ex-husbands asked her shy she reacted so calmly when he told her that he wanted a divorce, she said
“Because all my life, I ‘ve learned to suffer in silence”. This might not what really what people do in reality, but this philosophy is shared with other writers, for example, The Syrian poet Nizar Qabani expressed something within the same lines explaining to his beloved that his silence does not necessarily convey a message of carelessness. The poem is called إلى تلميذة قُلْ لي- و لو كَذباً- كلاماً ناعماً قد كاد َ يقتلني بكَ التمثالُ...

الى ان يقول
إن الحروفَ تموت حينَ تقالُ
ومن ثم

لا تجرحي التمثالَ في إحساسه فلكم بكى في صمته... تمثالُ

Below is the entire poem
الى تلميذه........ رائعة..لشاعر نزار قباني
قُل لي –ولو كذباً – كلما ناعماً قد كادَ يقتلني بكَ التمثالُ
مازلتِ في فن المحبّة .. طفلةً بيني وبينكِ أبحرٌ وجبالُ
لم تستطيعي – بعدُ – أن تتفهمي أن الرجال جميعهم .. أطفالُ
إني لأرفض أن اكون مهرجاً قزماً .. على كلماتة يحتالُ
فإذا وقفت أمام حسنك صامتاً فالصمتُ في حرم الجمال.. جمال
كلماتنا في الحب .. تقتل حبنا إن الحروف تموت حين تقالُ
قصص الهوى قد أفسدتك فكلها غيبوبةٌ .. وخرافةٌ .. وخيالُ
الحب ليس روايةً شرقيةً بختامها يتزوج الأبطالُ
لكنةُ الإبحارُ دون سفينة وشعورنا أن الوصول محالُ
هو أن تظل على الأصابع رعشةٌ وعلى الشفاة المطبقات سؤالُ
هو جدولُ الأحزان في أعماقنا تنمو كروم حولة وغلالُ
هو هذه الأزمات تسحقنا معاً فنموت نحنُ .. وتزهر الآمالُ
أن نثور لأيّ شيءٍ تافةٍ هو يأسُنا .. هو شكنا القتالُ
هو هذه الكف التي تغتالنا ونقبل الكفَّ التي تغتال
لاتجرحي التمثالَ في إحساسة فلكم بكى في صمته .. تمثال
قد يطلع الحجر الصغير براعماً وتسيل منه جدالٌ وظلالُ
إني أُحبكِ.. من خلال كابتي حسبي وحسبك
.. أن تظلّي دائماً سرّاً يمزقني .. وليس يقالُ..

Anyway, i still have another 100 pages to go#

watch out -- bad weather conditions next week

next week shall witness cold, real cold weather condition (just to say the least). Even though it is too early to confirm, but it seems like snow shall previal as well.

Saudi Arabia bans all things red ahead of Valentine's Day

(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia has asked florists and gift shops to remove all red items until after Valentine's Day, calling the celebration of such a holiday a sin, local media reported Monday.

Hijab (Vail) in Turkey, what is the fuss all about

whilst the American are busy with their 2008 presidential elections, the Lebanese are still working out a way to fill the Lebanese state president post, the Palestinians and the Iraqis are mourning their fatalities, the Turks are spending an awful lot of time disputing whether or not Hijab is allowed at their universities. There is always something that i do not get about Turkey. It is a predominantly Muslim country (>98%) with around 60% of its population wearing the Vail. Cannot we just assume that it all boils down to personal freedom of choice,? or at least personal preference? There ought to be some more important for the turks to worry about!

The Aftermath

Of course, the Aftermath of the snow storm. However, you may like to know the origins of the word "Aftermath"; originally meant "the grass that grows after the first crop of hay has been taken", from an old word "math", meaning to mow

Commonly, on the other hand, it is used to descirbe what happens after

-Queen Alia Amman international Airport was closed all night and was reopened this morning at 9:30 (so my wife can arrive from Dubai today)

-Wide spread freezing after the temperature dropped to below zero during the night

-36 hours of now caused at least 40cm of accumulation in areas like west Shemisani (around 940 M above sea level)

- temperature now At 11 am IS 2.1 degrees.

- bitter cold tonight (-4) with more freezing and hazardous driving conditions

- All businesses , government etc are closed for the second day in a row

- The low pressure system has moved to to the east and we are under the remaining front. Skies will become partly cloudy, some snow flurries every now and then.

-Temperature on the rise tomorrow and Saturday to reach again seasonal average

-Humidity is still high (90%)

-Atmospheric presure is on the rise,, actually has risen by 10 mb since last night confirming the end of the storm

-This storm was marked by high winds all through due to the low value of the atmospheric pressure the prevailed during the storm


-Main roads are open, but one should exercise extreme caution, inner roads are almost close and I do not recommend driving at inner roads without 4x4, as you are bound to get stuck and hamper the efforts of others who have emergencies.

- Have not heard of major accidents, power loss, except on the personal level, i am running out of food supplies! But i will resolve the issue this afternoon

- The fun part is over, the ugly part of melting snow, slippery conditions, cold evening and depressing scenery of dirty snow remians.


The following are pictures that i took this morning from the window of my home











Note the frozen water drops on the left bottom side of the picture indicating the sub zero temperatures

Snow and More snow

It started snowing in Amman after mid night.

This morning, it is bilizard like conditions and still snowing. Unlike last week, it is going to be difficult to get to the office. It seems i will resume work through my VPN.

Snow is to resume at noon, when another cold front will sweep the area

Weather map

Tuesday map

Big weather system -- watch out

(picture on the left is taken last Tuesday)

It seems like a big weather system is coming to the Eastern Med. Deep low pressure system accompanied with really high winds (in excess of 90Km/hour).

The effect of this system shall start tomorrow evening and intensify on Tue, where snow is expected in all Areas. I will not miss it inshalla, as i m leaving oman tomorrow morning to Amman skipping a 48 scheduled stop over in Dubai.

Last time i was in Oman was early this year, the only noticeble change is more Traffic , as every where else in this world.

Is it logical to turn on A/C in Jan

Yes, if you are in muscat.
I left Amman, and it was bitter cold, i arrived at Muscat at around 3 AM, and the outside temperature in the Airport was 20 C. I arrived at the hotel, it was kind of discomfortably warm. Tried to sleep, but to no avail , until the AC unit was turned on.

above freezing snow! is it a myth or reality

It is a reality, and it happened Yesterday!! Yesterday morning, It was snowing like crazy, when my thermometer was well above freezing (around 4 degrees C).

This seems against everything we learned in science classes when we were taught that snow melts when the temperature rises above Zero C (or 32 F). How then did we witness snow?

The naive answer is that snow start melting indeed but it did not have enough time to completely melt before it reached the ground. That is partially true, but this is not what happened yesterday!! Yesterday the upper atmosphere was cold and wet, so snow formed. The lower layers were dry with temperature above freezing. The catch here is DRY, while snow is following, it started melting. Now water of course, has a good tendency to evaporate, The evaporation is falling snow took place at higher rates than normal due to the dryness of the lower levels of the atmosphere. To transfer melting snow from liquid state to vapor state, energy is required. This energy is taken from snow crystals themselves, so the energy within the snow flake becomes less, and henceforth, its temperature goes down. What are we having here:-

The atmosphere is warm enough to cause snow to melt; the atmosphere is dry enough to cause evaporation of melting snow; energy is required for evaporation,. This energy is taken from snow crystals causing them to cool down. If the evaporation rate is just right, the temperature of the snow crystal drops back to zero and the crystal maintains its freezing state. The crystal is at Zero temperature, and the atmosphere is above zero, therefore, snow keeps falling because it is still at zero temperature regardless of the fact that its surrounding is really above zero.

Summary, when the atmosphere is above freezing and the wind is dry, snow flake can keep falling. There is a formula that tells you for at what temperature snow can still fall at what humidity level. In fact, and based on such formula, snow can still fall at temperature of as high as 8 degrees when the humidity is 20% . Interesting, isn't

Fairy Tale wedding ends before it started

"We decided to remain friends", fairly common statement and it was the statement that Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds made two weeks after they got wed at Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia on Jan. 1, 2008. If this incident took place in conservative countries like the middle east, i could imagine what reasons are entailed, but knowing Eddie, no, i do not believe that this is what he was expecting from a 40 year movie star. Otherwise, he would have chosen the virgin islands for the ceremony and not Bora Bora!

9/11, the truth

A truely informative web site http://www.ae911truth.org/ Architects and Engineer give scientific evidents that the 3 buildings that collapsed in 9/11 could not be due the Airplane crash. Rather these engineers believe that it was rather controlled demolition!!!!!!!!

ammar sajdi

So you think you can shoot

a couple of month ago, i went with friends to Sahab, a small town in the eastern outskirts of Amman to demonstrate our shooting capabilities.
We were accompanied by first class instructor, a friend of our called mahmoud maharmeh.
We drove around 20 Km into the desert to reach Al-Mahrameh 1000 Dunum ranch.

We used a 9 mm Gun





There are three steps:

Hold the Gun
Aim
Shoot

If you ignore the instructions as to how to hold the gun, this is what may happen




me injured, and it took around 6 weeks and it has not completely cured.

The first lesson: Adhere to the instructions completely











This happened to me and my friend Maen, but Amjad escaped the injurey

















Amjad Shooting

















Maen Shooting







Aiming instructions is what you expect them to be, however, shooting experience is a bit difficult because of the bang sound and the reflex that one experiences. What makes you loose you concentration during aiming, is that while you are triggering and expecting the bullet to go out, your are in a wait state and you body and mind starts to react to the bullet explosion and its noise before it actually happens. If you can control this refelx, you shall score well.

Cold

I have been dorment for a while, something i seem to enjoy these days. for some reasons, nothing outside the domain of my direct (and inactive) life seems to matter. my wife is in Australia and coming back tomorrow. I spend the past 3 week all alone. That was cold! Moreover today was one of the coldest days this winter in Amman; the temperature reached a max of only 3 Degrees during the day, and it is below zero now at 10 PM. It will remain cold at least till next wednesday; unfortunately, it will also be very dry as well. These conditions are due to a high pressure system centered in Syberia and causing cold north weasterly winds to blow on middle eastern countries. No effective weather system is expected till Jan 20th where a low pressure system is expected to approach us. Still , however, it is too early to decide.

down under

tomorrow i am supposed to be traveling to Perth Australia with Jumana on a two week trip to visit friends living over there. A vacation, in other words. Due to thoughts beyond my control, Juaman will end up going to visit and I guess i will be staying right here in Amman

coming up in a trip to Angola, a country with extremely poor population, and yet one of the most expensive African countries where Malaria and Yellow fever can be found in abundance. Not only that, but if you are driving in the Capital, keep all cars locked and do not stop to anybody. Avoid being alone, avoid traveling, avoid leaving the hotel and you will be safe.

mish bilmood

The title says it all

رأيت نابلس

An article my mother worte after visiting Nablus last month (NOV 2007)

بعد عدة سنين وفجأة قررت والعائلة زيارة بلدنا المحتلة نابلس، لمشاركة أهلنا هناك بمناسبة فرح يعنينا أمره. تلك المدينة التي ولد فيها والدي وأولادي إلا إياي ....، كنا ننتظر على أحر من الجمر، رغم الحذر والمخاوف .. أن نصل مدينتنا الرابضة الراسخة بين جبلين، راسخة بما تحوي بين جبليها من ثراء عتيق وخضرة نامية وانسان ذي جذور تمتد وتمتد....
طريقنا إلى نابلس لم تكن صعبة، ولكنها طريق غريبة .. بعيدة بعض الشيء، مقفرة في بعض أجزائها وجديدة كالشرق الأوسط الجديد، تاركة العارضة والبادان اللتين هما الأجمل والأخضر والأكثر ثراء.
وعندما أشرفنا على الوصول، ظهرت أمامنا .. وكأنها تسد سماءنا وهواءنا فلا نكاد نتنفس، مستوطنة ضخمة جاثمة على أعلى الجبل، مرعبة منذرة تطل بعنف وسيطرة على المنطقة، تحول دون خفقان قلب الحنين والحب إلى حزن وانكماش وخوف.
دخلت البلد وأنا خائفة أن أرى ما رأيت في الطريق .. وكان توقعي في محله.. المدينة أكبر وأكثر عمراناً .. إلا أن نابلس الصغيرة الخضراء العتيقة التي يضمها الجبلين .. ويجعل أهلها أكثر التصاقاً وتلاحماً .. تغيرت .. نعم أنا مقتنعة أن التغيير أمر عادي وطبيعي ولازم للحداثة.
وصلنا الفندق وبلدنا لم يكن فيها فنادق إلا حديثاً .. فكل البيوت هي بيوتنا، فنحن نحل إذا أردنا حيث شئنا .. فنحن ضيوف البلدة كلها .. هذا ما نشعر به .. ألم أحدثكم عن طبيعة العلاقات الإنسانية الحميمة قبل قليل ...
الفندق صغير ومتواضع ولكنه مفعم بالمحبة والقبول ... خرجت إلى الشوارع أجوبها يمنة ويسرة .. والذكريات تتدفق كالفيلم السينمائي، هناك حنين وشوق وفرح باللقاء .. وكان الناس جميعاً تطل من النوافذ تقول "أهلين"، هذا الجو أغفلني بعض الشيء عن اتساخ البلد المؤسف وعمرانها الممتد عشوائياً لا يروق للناظر.
في الليلة الأولى استمتعنا بحفل فرح مرح ضم الأحباب والأصدقاء .. خاصة الشباب منهم الذي تركتهم أطفالاً ويافعين مجتمعين في الحاكورة .. والآن هم يشقون طريقهم بقوة وعزم في أرضهم الطيبة التي حددت وسرقت وضاقت عليهم إلا أنها عزيزة .
الليلة الأولى حفل ممتع ثلاث ساعات ضم الأهل والأحباب .
والليلة الثانية معركة ضارية استمرت من الساعة الثانية ليلاً إلى التاسعة مساءاً في اليوم الثاني، استشهد فيها شاب مقاوم، وأما الكهل والطفلة رانية البالغة من العمر ثلاث سنوات فقتلا خطأ كالعادة !! مع الاعتذار بعد القتل طبعاً !!، وجرح خمسة وعشرون شخصاً مختلفي الاصابات، كما أعتقل كثيرون .. وانتهت المعركة بنسف منزل آل الهواش واعتقال ابنيهم ... آل الهواش المعروفون بشرف المقاومة ضد الاحتلال.
لم تكد زغاريد الفرح تملأ الأجواء وتصل إلى أعلى السماء، حتى خنقتها زغاريد الحزن العميق تتخللها نواح وولوله .. على فقدان الأحبة، هذا الفقدان الوحشي والقصري المتحدي والخارق للشريعة الإلهية والإنسانية.
بعدها يختفون وتختفي كل الآثار وكأن هناك حجاب يحجب كل الأخبار عن العالم الخارجي، صمت رهيب يلف الأحداث .. وكان المخلقات من انسان وبنيان تختفي عن وجه الخليقة هكذا دون أن يلمسها أحد..يا إلهي ما هذا الأسلوب الشيطاني القمعي الدقيق التخطيط, في وجه أسلوب عفوي فوضوي مختلف التبعات والعدوات، يضل الطريق يجهل كل شيء عن المستقبل .. كل شيء إلى أين .. ومتى . وإيان

امل جردانة سجدي

The world's TOP 100 Engineering and computer universities

I was not surprised not to find any Arab or Islamic university among the leading universities in the world. Also not surprised to find two Israeli universities, which tells you what?
And that the top 15 Universities are all American with Cambridge (UK) coming 16th??
Tohoku (Japan) at 17th???

Are the high rise building and mega malls in Dubai getting us anywhere?
Or the tones of IT graduate from our 22 jordanian unversities contribute anything to the world?
Or the massively luxurious car, unprecedented in other parts of the world taking us anywhere?
How about the near $100 Per barrel OIL prices that our neigbouring countries are charging now a days?
Isn't the quran that started with the word 'IQRA2' ? (read- a clear indicator for the important of education)
Let me NOT imagine what prophet mohammad would react to all of that

(source: http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ARWU-FIELD2007/ENG.htm)

1 Massachusetts Inst Tech (MIT)
2 Stanford Univ
3 Univ Illinois - Urbana Champaign
3 Univ Michigan - Ann Arbor
5 Univ California - Berkeley
6 Pennsylvania State Univ - Univ Park
7 Georgia Inst Tech
8 Univ Texas - Austin
9 Univ California - San Diego
10 Purdue Univ - West Lafayette
11Univ California - Santa Barbara
12Univ Southern California
13Univ Maryland - Coll Park
14Carnegie Mellon Univ
15Cornell Univ
16Univ Cambridge
17Tohoku Univ
18California Inst Tech
19Univ Toronto
20Northwestern Univ
21Univ Wisconsin - Madison
22North Carolina State Univ - Raleigh
22Univ Washington - Seattle
24Princeton Univ
25Kyoto Univ
26Ohio State Univ - Columbus
27Imperial Coll London
28Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Lausanne
28Tokyo Inst Tech
30Univ Florida
31Texas A&M Univ - Coll Station
32Natl Univ Singapore
33Univ California - Los Angeles
34Univ Minnesota - Twin Cities
35Harvard Univ
36Univ Pennsylvania
37Hong Kong Univ Sci & Tech
38Technion Israel Inst Tech
39Osaka Univ
40Univ Massachusetts - Amherst
41Univ Oxford
42Univ Colorado - Boulder
43Univ California - Davis
44Univ Manchester
45McGill Univ
46Univ Waterloo
47Virginia Tech
48Univ California - Irvine
49Natl Chiao Tung Univ
50Duke Univ

RANK from 50-75

Arizona State Univ - Tempe
Case Western Reserve Univ
Chalmers Univ Tech
City Univ Hong Kong
Kyushu Univ
Michigan State Univ
Nanyang Tech Univ
Polytechnic Inst Turin
Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst
Rice Univ
Seoul Natl Univ
Swiss Fed Inst Tech - Zurich
Tech Univ Denmark
Tokyo Univ
Tsing Hua Univ
Univ Bordeaux 1
Univ Bristol
Univ British Columbia
Univ Delaware
Univ Leuven
Univ Melbourne
Univ New South Wales
Univ Sheffield
Univ Sydney
Univ Twente
Univ Virginia

Rank 76 - 100

Boston Univ
Chinese Univ Hong Kong
Delft Univ Tech
Hokkaido Univ
Indian Inst Sci
Iowa State Univ
Johns Hopkins Univ
Korea Advanced Inst Sci & Tech
Lund Univ
Natl Taiwan Univ
Natl Tsing Hua Univ
Pohang Univ Sci & Tech
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ
Tech Univ Munich
Tel Aviv Univ
Univ Alberta
Univ California - Riverside
Univ Central Florida
Univ Leeds
Univ Louvain
Univ Montreal
Univ Naples Federico II
Univ Newcastle
Univ Paris 06
Univ Southampton
Univ Utah
Univ Utrecht
Uppsala Univ
Washington Univ - St. Louis
Zhejiang Univ

Kunafeh Sunday

Our engagement for the E-government project in Syria is officially over (and practically 98% over). It was rather a Chaotic entropy, not a particularly easy engagement, however partially ejoyable, and therefore, Kunafeh is served in the company on Sunday! I am not fond of kunafeh at all, neither my genetic belonging to Nablus had any influence towards improving my affinity to Kunafeh. Neverthetheless, i observed that Kunafeh is one way people of this region exhibit their ceremonial inclinations.

weather matters

looks like we are going to have a rainy week this coming week.
we are going to have some rain tomorrow evening, but this is not the reason why i am writing!
If things in the atmosphere remain the same, we are expecting a real wintery storm next Wed, Thursday. I mean Strong winds, cold temperature and lots of rain.
It is not easy to confirm things at this moment, because Atmospheric science is so complex of a science and our atmosphere is a fairly complex system. Weather forcasts stem from computerized model that require super computers to simulate including data mining techniques. (follow this link to a what data mining is)http://www.e-ammar.com/introduction_to_data_mining.htm
Business intelligence (BI)and to a less extent is picking us also in government sector here in Jordan. Yesterday, I had a demo to the Customs department in Jordan in which we showed them techniques and technology we currently used to create BI solution for them.
We are also building our skills to satisfy IBM demand for consultant capable of using IBM DataStage (One of the leading ETL tools).

The interesting thing to observe here is that my personal interest in weather system and atmospheric science is not immensely decoupled from what i do for living.

Next blog, i will post an article that my mother wrote after visiting Nablus after so many years of absance

shelfari now in Beta

Shaelfari is a special purpose facebook alike. it specializeس in sharing your favorite books titles by creating your own shelfbook. It is always intresting to know what interests other. you can learn or at least assume things about people by knowing what they like to read (if at all , of course)

http://www.shelfari.com/

اعز مكان في الدنا سرج سابح وخير جليس في الزمان كتاب

عمار

khusara a great loss

I felt so sorry to read in the newspaper and on the first page news about the loss of Younis Shalaby; a great comedian with unprecedented talents. He shined in Madraset Al-Mushgebeen and later in il3eyal kibret. It is a great loss, reinforced by the fact that now a days there are hardly any substitutes for the stars that we lost in the past 12 months. Namely, Fuad Il-muhandes, Abdul ilme3em ilmadbouli and now Shalabi. He was 66.
May his soul rest in peace

Kiss your ADSL router good bye

In a ceremonial event at Four Seasons hotel, Omnia has announced the launch of its new WiMax Internet Access the day before yesterday. By the way, the Steak that was served was exceptionally delicious.

The steps are easy

Get Rid of your ADSL line
subscribe with Omnia
Get your wireless Wimax router, no land lines or anything!!
bring the wimax router home
get your pc connected

you feel like sitting in a public place (for example Al-Alfieh Garden). No problem, bring on your WiMax router and your are connected (i assume you still need power).
I hope that you get the idea.

Later on , buy a USB WiMax router
Hook it to your laptop
and you are connected everywhere there is coverage

I still need to verify the reliability of the line!!

The cost ! Around 465 JD / Year for a 2Mb line

Do you want to make money in BI

IBM today announced that it is buying Cognos
Oracle had already acquired Hyperion
SAP amicably acquired Business Object

There isn't much left in the Business Intelligence software sector. Except, that is, for Informetica. This is the last man standing, and therefore, a potential candidate for acquisition.

Informetica share is trading at 16 USD, a potential price is 21 USD,,, If this prophecy proves to be true ,, a deal with 25% profit stands up in the horizon.

Ammar Sajdi

Greater Amman Municipality

The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is now blogging at
www.ammancityblog.com
This is a real chance to convey our ideas and critiques to make Amman a better place!
Back in the 80's, Amman was such a beautiful, clean, seren and majestic city. At these years, i was not easy for me to travel and not miss it.
Unfortunately, i am missing these feelings these days. All I see is traffic jams, no parking space, black smoke, angry drivers, people innocently getting rid of Pepsi cans and coffee cups out of the car windows, Chaotic steets and alleys. I will personally blog to write about the dirts that restaurents leave out, Fakher Elddin is an example, where the leftovers are trashed just opposite to the back door of Astra building.
Every morning, there is probably more that 2000 GAM employees that start cleaning the street from the early morning hours. There are ,on the other hand, some 2.5 million making sure that they get these streets dirty. Why not spread awareness and teach the 2.5 million not to litter rather than cleaning after them. There is a pedistrian passway connecting Dastour Newspaper to Abu-Elhajj commercial center and you just cannot imagine the amout of dirts that compiles there!!

Status Quo!

Today we have bigger houses and smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time;

we have more degrees, but less common sense;
more knowledge, but less judgment;

We have more experts, but more problems;
more medicine, but less wellness.

We spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
drive too fast, get to angry too quickly,
stay up too late, get up too tired,
read too little, watch TV too often,
and pray too seldom

We have multiplied our possessions,
but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too little
and lie too often.

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but have less;

we buy more, but enjoy it less.

we write more, but learn less;
plan more, but accomplish less.

We've been all the way to the moon but
fail to visit next door neigbour.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait;

we have higher incomes, but lower morals

We are long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion;
tall men and short character;
steep profits and shallow relationships.
More leisure and less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition;
two incomes, but more divorce;
fancier houses, but broken homes.

As of today, you do not keep anything for a special occasion,
because every day that you live is a special occasion.

Search for knowledge, read more,
sit on your front porch and admire the view .

Spend more time with your family and friends, eat your favorite foods,
and visit the places you love

Life is a chain of moment of enjoyment, not only about survival.
Use your crystal goblets. Do not save your best perfume,
and use it every time you feel you want it

Let’s tell our families and friends how much we love them. Do not delay anything that adds laughter and joy to your life.

Every day, every hour, and every minute is special. And you don’t know if it will be your last If you’re too busy to take the time to convey this message to someone you love, and you tell yourself you will send it “one of these days “. Just think…”One of these days “, you may not be here to do it

Well, I received this from a cousin! Why specifically it was sent to me!! a Good Question?
Every Week starts, and by the time it ends, I try to evaluate that; It passed so quick and was full of things, but it is still like any other week. Still However, I enjoy Thursday the most. Why? Because, it is almost always the end of a wild and chaotic week and that has got to stop!

Ammar

Simplexity

Simplexity is the name of a book i bought from Bahrain Airpot at 6 AM this morning on my way back to Amman. As usual, RJ cannot possibly pick worse flight timing even if it hired people to do so. The Flight departure time is 7 AM (6AM Amman time), so you need to be prepared early very early in the morning. It true that you arrive early in the morning to Amman, but you spend the entire day tired. Anyway, Simplexity, is a book about Simple Rules of a Complex World written by Jeffery Kluger. I liked the title, but still need to examine the contents.

my time is bahrain was almost full. I ended up spending at our company apartment, whcih turned out to be much better that i initially imagined but of course, not a five stars standard. It is a 2 bedroom apt with 2 bathrooms, small kitchen and reasonably sized sitting room and a big TV and free internet access. The building contains good facilities for the tenants like an indoor swiming pool, Gem, and a recreation room. Just opposite to the building, there is a small shopping area with a nice supermarket and a nice coffee shop with wireless internet. Fortunately, the apt was cleaned before my arrival

no rooms in bahrain

it is a must to go to Bahrain tomorrow. There seems to be a sports events in Bahrain, and since it is such a samll country, not a single room is available. Well, i guess i will take bed covers with me and see where my fate drops me off tomorrow. pary for me :)

Who am i

Marriage Season for every species

out of observation, i know that there seems to be marriage season form most animal species. I know for example that cats marriage season is enriched in February.
Human however, seem to enjoy marriage all year round! making no specific marriage season!
For REALSOFT/INFORMOBILITY, there seems to be an exception. 2 female REALSOFTers ar getting married to 2 Males Informobilitees. One is today (congratulation goes to Hayat and Eyad) who worked for REALSOFT/INFORMOBILITY before they even graduated, and the other couple (Ahmad and Luma) is next week. Also Mohd Mansour and Lama diverged and decided to get their partners from outside the REALSOFT/INFO domain. Lama is scheduled to get married on Dec!

Good Bye Business Objects

The German giant SAP, the world’s leading provider of business software, plans to acquire Business Objects, the frensh BI industry leader, in a friendly take over. The value of this acquistion is something like 4.8 Billion Euros.

Oracle, SAP rival, has been very active in the acquisition process. Oracle aquired many large firms like JD Edwards, Poeple Soft, Sieble, Hyperion, Stellent and many more. Currrently, Oracle is bidding to acquire BEA, the Application Servers market leader. Oracle proposed an offer of 17$ per share. BEA management is likely to turn down the offer and ask for 21$. Oracle offer of 17$ per share when the share was trading for 13$ at NASDAQ.

Suffice it to say,Oracle acquired People Soft in a hostile take over!!!

I would be very interested in this story, as Application Server domain of business is something we deal with on daily basis

Mars starts using animal products

Some of the UK's best-selling chocolate bars, such as Mars and Twix, will no longer be suitable for vegetarians.
Also affecting brands such as Snickers and Maltesers, owner Masterfoods said it had started to use animal product rennet to make its chocolate products.

check the entire article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6653175.stm





Ammar Sajdi

www.palco-me.com

questioning Darwinism

During recent decades, it is claimed that scientific evidence from many disciplines including cosmology, physics, biology, etc . .. have caused scientists to begin questioning Darwinism evolution



"We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."



A list of 700 Ph.D have signed their name testifying their skepticism. The list is published by Discovery Instiute (http://www.discovery.org/).



Press release about the list

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2732





you can check out the list

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=660



check out this book

http://www.darwindayinamerica.com/

This is how weather in Amman looked like

Driving back from Damscus to Amman at night is definitely no fun at all. It is a task to accomplish. What is exciting last night was the fact that there was a weather system crossing central Jordan. Lightening, thunder, and rain. Very localized rain, where certain areas were soaking wet, while others in close proximity were completely dry. This is a distinctive feature of weather system mostly characterized by unstable condition. Normally caused by warn wind convicting upwards and meeting cold front.


Since I am passionate about weather conditions, I am really thrilled to show you some pictures taken by people of the Jordan weather forum. I know that this might be really boring for those who have no affection towards nature. I do not blame them, I cannot explain why and how my interests in this emanates from



Imagin the thender


Radar image showing rainy clouds moving towards Jordan while crossing palestine



I guess the excitement of a new rainy system is starting

Ammar

Aftermath

Now that Eid is over, it is about time to assess the damage



1) First Day of Eid: I was in Damascus the day before Eid and I bought 1KG of peanuts (which smelled so tempting). The night of Eid and in the early morning hours, i kept eating peanuts until my stomach really got upset. I had to tolerate abdomenal pain from noon till night while having to skip the delicious Eid Lunch



2) First night of Eid: After the abdominal issue tapered off a little bit, i received a call from my colleague Jaffar telling me that we are supposed to deliver a propsal to a customer in Nigeria at or before Sat morning and that we still need to repond to some parts of the Request for Proposal. I went to the office at around 10 PM, He left at around 11 because he was so tiered working the day before and on Eid day. I was supposed to spend a couple of hours, I ended up leaving at 7:30. While it is not uncommon for me to leave office at 7:30. What was different this time is that, it was 7:30 AM. It was quite a long time for all-nighters! apart from traveling, i do not remeber staying up all night since college time! My biological watch is not used to sleeping at morning, i managed to sleep for two hours.



3) nothing special about the 2nd day



4) The third day was consumed totally while trying to make JMS working in Oracle JDeveloper Env. Once accomplished, i continued to couple client application with JMS provider through JMS webservice, which at the end of the day surprisingly worked.



5) Third Night, While watch TV at around 9 PM, next thing i remebered waking up at 8 AM, sleeping for 11 straight hours!!!!!!!!! I guess making up all the sleep deprivation.



6) Fourth day (not any more Eid), against all social norms, i replied bulk SMS i received and visited my sister and aunte!



7) Fourth night: we were invited over at Fakher Elddin, and since i had no lunch that day, i excersied my joyful habit of making things up that i missed, and had consumed so much food that made this meal the first real meal since the begining of Ramadan. This event did not go by unnoticed, my stomach got upset again, and therefore, i did not feel well for the reminder of the night and today.



And now, while i am writing this, i think, the aftermath of Eid is well contained, and i seems like things are returning to normal.. Tomorrow morning, i need to rise up and get going at 7 AM to the neighboring Syria. By the way the distnace from where i live in Amman to where the customer is in Damsucs is exactly 205.5 Km. Under normal cirumstances, it requires around two and half hours

Eid Tomorrow غلط , It is only politically correct, Real Eid is on Sat

الافطار بكرة غلط غلط
According to astronomists here in Jordan and every where else, Sighting the crescent (hilal) this evening scientific impossibility. Hear me loud and clear; it is impossible to have spotted the Hilal with naked eyes or telescopes this evening. I was following up very closely the stream of news emanating from the press room headed by Dr Ahmad Heliel of Jordan. Jordanian astronomists were also present, who, not only made their calculation, but also set up 5 sites to try to sight the invisible crescent just to prove their point and make everybody happy. Their prophecy came true, and obviously, nothing was found only because the baby crescent sets 7 minutes before sun set. The situation became immensely complicated, when all of a sudden, a breaking news announcing the end of Ramadan Came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and all Gulf countries except Oman. Moments afterwards, Egypt announced that tomorrow is the 30th day of Ramadan and henceforth, Eid is on Saturday. The announcement of Eid in Jordan was not, therefore, based on sighting the Hilal but was announced in solidarity with other Muslim countries. (الاسلام دين جماعة)
On what basis was Eid declared to be tomorrow in KSA? Sighting had to be made by one or more trustworthy men testifying before a committee of Muslim leaders! Spokesmen in the press room said that they contacted their Saudi counterparts who also confirmed the sheer impossibility of sighting the hilal then evening.

How then can Saudi Muslim leaders accept the testimony of anybody when in the 21 century scientists over emphasized the fact that seeing the moon is impossible

Personally, i cannot go against an official announcement and take an odd direction tomorrow by completing the fasting of the month, but i will have to definitely make the day up by fasting an extra day after Eid.

عمار السجدي

What is so special about OCT 4th, try peter answers soul engine

I will try to demonstrate why this Question is an interesting one

In order to illustrate the peculiarity of OCT 4th, I shall use Oracle database and SQL Langugae to demonstrate my point

Ammar>select to_date('27/1/2007','dd/mm/yyyy') SHOW_DATE from dual;

SHOW_DATE
--------------
27/1/2007

The above merely displays a date in dd/mm/yyyy format. Now let us see what happends if I try to display the result of the expression ('27/1/2007') after adding 1 to it


Ammar>select to_date('27/1/2007','dd/mm/yyyy') + 1 SHOW_DATE from dual;

SHOW_DATE
--------------
28/1/2007

Barely an surprises, the day after 27/1/2007 is 28/1/2007

Now, let me repeat the exercise for another date, namely for 4/10/1582

Ammar> select to_date('4/10/1582','dd/mm/yyyy') SHOW_DATE from dual

SHOW_DATE
--------------
04/10/1582

Let us see what the day after 04/10/1582 would be?

Tarrraaaaaaaaaaaaa

Ammar> select to_date('4/10/1582','dd/mm/yyyy') + 1 SHOW_DATE from dual

SHOW_DATE
--------------
15/10/1582

Say What? the date after 4/10/1582 is 15/10/1582.

This is against any logical, empirical, or interpretational result a human mind can go through, but it is TRUE, and this is not a bug in the software!!!

You may think that you need the help of extraterrestrial power, like the interactive soul engine called peter answers that i talked about before
http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2007/01/peter-answers-interactive-soul-engine.html
but once you know why 15/4/1582 is the day directly after 4/10/1582, you will come to realize one important issue in our universe; If there is something that is beyond the frontiers of your comprehension, it , in no way, implies that this thing does not exist!!

afterall, there is a reason why 15/10 if after the 4th of Oct 1852

Ammar Sajdi
www.e-ammar.com
PALCO/REALSOFT/INFORMOBILITY
JORDAN, Amman

Facebook

i had facebook account for quite sometime,,, intially, not reallying knowing what it is. Just finding myself receiving a message that forced me to sign up. Since then, i have been very passive (still is) as i do not feel the necessity for such a tool when other channels have been available for a while. I receivs things that i do not understand like gifts, wall, etc ... Also receving -Add friend- request from people i never new, and accepting a mix of both I know and I do not know. Consequently, the traffic is low and to be honest, cannot find myself really interested. Last night, i saw some family youngsters on Ifrar working on laptops. I saw them working on the keyboard like firing machine gun. I thought they were playing a game. In reality, they were just working on facebook. Literally hundered and hundreds of things on their screen. While trying to extrapolate the usage of Laptop for this generation, i arrived to the conclusion that a Laptop is made for Facebook,, no other URL exists. All infrastructure is for Facebook. 1 MB ADSL, Wireless connection, PC's with Flat screens and laptops to support the enthusian for Facebook. This morning, and just for the heck of it, was a historic moment what i added (or attempted to add as results are yet to be knows) the first facebook friend. Recently, another pressing sign up request came from something else called JAXTR. Finally, i could not keep resisting the curiousity and ended up signing up. It seems like voice enable community. if things continue into this channeling, are we going to need to get together anymore, or knowing one fact and physical attributes shall be no longer needed. We can keep making virtual interactions. Why do we resist making friends via Cyber means, if we do not recognize names and/or faces. I think because we are only used to that, and not necessarily because this the only proper way. What last thing about yesterday Iftar was one of the young relative girls asked me "What is Quantum Physics?" she is Nine and told me that she cannot wait until her age becomes Double Digits??!! It was a big question for which i could not find a easy answer although there is a short answer rgs

Last two week

Constant anxiety, sheer physical strain, sleep deprivation
lots of driving between Amman and Damascus (and sometime coming back on the same day, while fasting), excessive stress, and at Iftar time, almost always invited out. I m Seeking enormous sympathy here!!!. Why? working on bleeding edge technology for the Syrian projects, All types of distributed processing, Asynchronous Web Services, JMS queuing, dynamic meta data driven data models and on top of that developing J2EE interface screen using Oracle ADF technology. Finally filling the data warehouse with economic indicators pertaining to Foreign Trade, Consumer prices index.
After tomorrow, we are having steering committee with the project management board representing three European companies, one of which is the German Giant Software AG.
If all goes well, we should be winding down and probably disengaging at end of Oct.

Today, we had Iftar gathering for PALCO/INFORMOBILITY/REALSOFT group at the Royal Automobile Club. It was good food @ reasonable prices

Play on Words

Well, when you want to enforce restriction on the distribution of Intellectual property assets , you use the word COPYRIGTH. That if you have a piece of software that you want to distribute freely without legal protection. What word is used! I could not get more blunt that this. I am not kidding , you just play on the copyright word, and it becomes COPYLEFT. Just expanded your vocabulary. Not only that but we are all familiar with the copyright sign (c), and we can get by without giving COPYLEFT it own sign. Just to make it easy for all of use, just turn the (c) to the Left and there you go , a new sign is born






other synonyms of COPYLEFT when it comes to Software are

reciprocal licenses
Anti copyright
Public domain
shareware
Freeware
GNU General Public Licnese

In the End, maybe the sign is not used in literature, but the word is

Ammar Sajdi
REALSOFT

smell of winter

today the 23rd of september was officially the first day in Autumn (fall in north america). It is the September equinox. (An equinox is when the sun is directly above the equator) Some countries consider 21st as the begining of Fall. The day started of as a spectacular sun shiny day. And in the afternoon hours, it turned partly cloudy with westerly refershing breeze and brisk at times. It was a fabulous afternoon, where a pre-iftar drive amids a cool, humid

Zaha center

on Sept 16 at 9:00 PM (after Iftar) we headed to Zaha Center in Khalda to celebrate my auntie Zaha birthday. The birthday party was organized by the kids who have this center as their hang out. It was a cool September night with temperature around 16 Degrees. The events was held in an open area, and i was not really prepared as i was wearing a T-Shirt.
Kids played music (Arabic music, I loved the kanoon), they sang old Arabic songs and one of the young kids (no more that 12 years old) demonstrated the emergence of the new Nizar Qabani with a couple of poems that he eloquently gave. That guy already had published a diwan. you would not believe that the words are for 12 years old Mr Warda Wakeeleh
The function lasted for one hour. It was really nice gathering to meet friends and family

Ammar

The Female Brain

It is a Book by Louann Brizendine, and not an attempt by me for any interpretation of any sort to this topic.
The author is taking a biological approach into describing how female brain works and where it is different from that of a male. It rahter strickly base the explanation on Neuro-Hormone characteristics. Neurotransmitter (dopamine, serotonine, oxytocin,norepinephrine) and hormones (estrogen, progestrone, testosterone etc ..) according to the author, can determine what the brain is interested in doing. Such chemicals help guide social, sexual and aggressive behaviours. In a nutshell, biology represents the foundation of our personalities and behavioural tendencies.
The book is both interesting and amusing, however, i am not sure about the validity of the scientific basis behind the facts introduced in the book.

Some of the issues that the book introduces, again, it would be nice to assert the scientific source of these issues

- Every brain starts as a female brain!!! and that holds true until the 8th week after conception.
- Women use 20,000 words a day while men user about 7,000 (no science is needed to prove this).
- IQs average the same, for both sexes
- Women have faster and broader verbal skills.
-Women have more neurons in the part of the brain devoted to emotions and to detecting emotions in others.
- The average man will think about sex as often as once a minute, while the average woman will think of sex much less often, as infrequently as once every one or two days, stated by the auther as "Women have an eight-lane superhighway for processing emotion, while men have a small country road," she writes. Men, however, "have O'Hare Airport as a hub for processing thoughts about sex, where women have the airfield nearby that lands small and private planes".
-A 20-second hug will trigger the release of oxytocin in a woman's brain. The effect of this chemical will often give the woman a feeling of trust in the person hugging her.

and many more. It is a fun book to read
ISBN 978-0-553-81849-9
available in Amman (books @cafe)
amazon
www.rbooks.co.uk for 7.99 pounds

Ammar Sajdi

Finally, another day off

After years and year of debate, finally, we at REALSOFT will have two day weekend.
That was not possible before due to the fact that our office in Oman works Sat to Wed, and if we work Sun to Thursday, we are going to be out of communication with our office in Oman for three days in a row!! Finally, Oman, and all Gulf countries (with the exception of Saudi Arabia) have adopted Fri-Sat weekend. Therefore, officially, We have no reason to go to offices on Saturday. Our working hours are 8:30 to 6:00 with one hour lunch break - 5 days a week

Our Ramadan office hours are therefore extended till 3:30 and shall start at 8:30
starting tomorrow

Ahlan Ramadan

My first Ramadan day shall be in Damascus, Watch out for Ramadan No, No things

This trick will allow you know the country of origin of your mobile phone
Press the following code on your mobile*#06# and the-international mobile equipment identity number appears. something similar to 343456001397734

Then check the 7th and 8th numbers: (in the above example the 7th and 8th digits are 00 which i highlighted in red)

according to an emial that i received from a company colleague (and the judgement of the quality of the mobile based on the country of the origin is also given by the same person and is therefore can be a matter of opinion)

IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 02 or 20 this means your cell phone was assembled in Emirates which is very Bad quality
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 08 or 80 this means your cell phone was manufactured in Germany which is fair quality
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 01 or 10 this means your cell phone was manufactured in Finland which is very Good
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 00 this means your cell phone was manufactured in original factory which is the best Mobile Quality
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 13 this means your cell phone was assembled in Azerbaijan which is very Bad quality and also dangerous for your health

Hebrew, an attitude towards normalization ?

If somebody from the far east ever asks you to create Hebrew fonts and download such fonts to a certain device that he created, how would you react? Would you look at it as yet another font for some language, or you would tie up with the oppressive state of Israel. Personally, i am radically against any movement towards normalization with the Zionist state! It would be much easier for me to give my judgment only if i am not directly involved in this situation and maybe unable to abstract the situation an isolate any bias I have toward the benefits of the company

Informobility products of Jordan conquer Taiwan

Informobility LLC , REALSOFT sister company won a contract for the arabization of the newly launched HTC line of smartphone an PDAs. Informobility is truly a leading provider of mobile and wireless products and services with an impressive track record of innovative solution and a phenomenal number of successful implementation in Jordan and the middle east. http://www.informobility.com. HTC is a Taiwan based world-class manufacturing company of cutting edge smartphone and PDA products. HCT is the original manufacturere of the well known I-mate and Qtek range of PDAs. http://www.htc.com. Based on the terms of the contract, Informobility shall be Arabic enabling HCT smartphones and PDAs for two years to come. We at Realsoft celebrated this event and congratulated ourselves and our partners at informobility during a lunch gathering here in Amman.

Gala Dinner and a mobile

Last night, ORANGE Brand was officially launched in Jordan at a Gala dinner held on the premises of Amman Citadel. As you would imagine, many people were there. The food was good, the weather was nice. Many attempts were made to entertain people (Belly dancing show, fireworks, Lebanese Female singer). To me, only the fireworks show was a real attempt, other than that forget it. The Female singer is somebody called Carol Sama7a (cannot deny that I heard the name before, but the face looked like a total stranger to me).
Ilmohem, while we were leaving the dinner, men received a mobile phone, a real sleek Motorola Moto Razer 2 (obviously locked to Mobilecom SIM) and my wife also had it share with a well craftet silver necklace.
Apparently I made a mistake in wording in part this post; I should not have written the statement (obviously locked to Mobilecom SIM) I should be writing (obviously locked to ORANGE) otherwise my attendance yesterday defeated its purpose

Duncan Again

Using the Value of an ADF List Binding
Written By Duncan Mills, Oracle CorporationJune, 2006
Introduction
Using list bindings ADF makes it very easy to associate drop-down lists and radio groups with either static or dynamic sets of data. When a suitable attribute is bound by dragging from the Data Control Palette and dropping as "Single Selection" the user specifies the value that will be populated and the label to use on the list entries themselves.
Where things get slightly confusing with such bound list UIs is the matter of a developer's initial expectation as to how the list should work. Taking the example of the EMPLOYEES and DEPARTMENTS table from the HR demo schema. If the Employee DepartmentID attribute is bound as a list and populated from the DEPARTMENTS table, the natural assumption would be that the list is composed of a set of elements, each of which, has a DepartmentID value and a DepartmentName label, for example 10-Administration, 20-Marketing, 30-Purchasing ...80-Sales and so on.
With this assumption in mind, developers often make the mistake of treating the value of the list binding as one of these expected values and trying to write code or expressions based on that. For example the developer might decide to conditionally render the Commission field on the screen using an expression based on the value of the DepartmentId field. In the example of a JavaServer Faces UI this might look like the following:
However, the expected result is not achieved because that initial assumption about the "value" of the list binding is actually incorrect. ADF actually manages the selected value of the list item internally and the value that is exposed through the list binding itself is only the index number of the selection in the list. So in the above example, the evaluated value of bindings.EmployeesView1DepartmentId.inputValue will probably evaluate to 8 rather than 80, depending on the contents of the DEPARTMENTS table.
This article examines how you can access the true value of the selected list item or radio button directly from ADF.
Creating a Secondary Binding
The simplest way to gain direct access to the true value of an attribute that is populated from a list binding is to create a secondary value binding to the underlying data. This secondary binding can then be used within expressions to access the true value of the attribute. Reverting to the example of the DepartmentId field, here are the steps. This assumes that you have suitable collections of data defined, in this case we're using ADF Business Components with default view objects for EMPLOYEES and DEPARTMENTS. We also assume here that you have already bound the DepartmentId attribute of the Employees collection as a list (for example an af:selectOneChoice if using JSF)
Open the page that contains the list item if it is not already open, and select Go to Page Definition from the right-click menu.
In the Structure window, select the bindings node, and from the right-click menu choose Insert inside bindings attributeBindings.
The attribute Binding Editor will appear. From the drop down list labeled Select an Iterator, select the iterator that the form fields are based on i.e. the Employees in this case. Then select the DepartmentId attribute on the right hand side. The dialog should look like the following illustration:
OK the dialog and a new binding (in this case called simply DepartmentId) is created. The primary (list) binding for the DepartmentId attribute will be called something like EmployeesView1DepartmentId.. You might want to clarify the purpose of the secondary binding by selecting it in the Structure window and using the Property Inspector to change the Id property to something that describes its function, such as "DepartmentIdCurrentValue".
Now the secondary binding is created you can go ahead and use it in expressions, for example "#{bindings.DepartmentIdCurrentValue.inputValue =='80'}" and it will evaluate as expected. You can also use the binding in code for example:

AttributeBinding deptIdBinding = (AttributeBinding)getBindings().getControlBinding("DepartmentIdCurrentValue"); Number deptId = (Number)deptIdBinding.getInputValue();

Summary
The ability to specify multiple bindings against the same attribute provides the developer with a great deal of flexibility. This example of working with list bindings shows one common use of the technique, but it can also be used in alternative contexts such as combinations of table and attribute bindings for "Summary Table + Detail View" type UIs.

Oracle - Delightfully creepy

(I) It's not the software itself that's expensive and painful, it's the psychotherapy you need afterwards...

(II) The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison

Intrinsic decency -- a rare commodity

It is strange when bad things sometimes make you happy!!!!!
How would you feel if your BMW 525i is hit! Bad, right! i mean Real Bad!
Well my car was hit yesterday on the left wing while is was parked near Al-Dastour Newspaper main building. Normally, i park my car at Abu-Elhajj commerical complex at floor -1 where i have a parking lot reserved for me,, but sometimes when i am coming from the University direction and traffic is heavy, I just part across the street.

When i arrived at the Car location, there was a note written on the wind-chill of the car, saying

"I am sorry to have hit your car while on reverse, Not to worry, my insurance shall cover for the expenses" She left her phone mobile no and name (Rula)

I was happy to realize that people with integrity still exist. She could have walked away carelessly! couldn't she? Regarless of "Samet El-baden" I went home with an inner feeling of joy. Henceforth, i called the lady and asked her to relax as i am not going to press chargeses, nor pursue her insurance credit.