Friday, November 30, 2007

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

Thursday, November 22, 2007

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

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

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

Monday, November 12, 2007

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

Friday, November 09, 2007

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

Friday, November 02, 2007

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

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