Dull Day

I am officially sick today, left the hotel for half an hour and returned back and slept for 3 hour. My body does not deal well with Fever (even when it is only minor). Seems like no musicals tonight.

Warm in London

Really warm day in London this Saturday. I would guess not less that 24 to 25, really lovely.
Staying at Marriott London Maida Vale which is a good Hotel. The neighbourhood is OK, first time for me at Maida Value street, but i found out that it is an extension to Edgware Road at the North Side. However, it is very close to St Johns Wood area NW of London.
The only problem is that i am developing a nasty cough and cold, and i m feeling week. wanted to behave a little like a tourist so Visited London Zoo, North of Regent Park, it was a real disappointment. Spent the rest of the time at Regent Park and camden market where people are mostly goth, punk and emo.

Yesterday, the weather was also nice, spent sometime at Hyde Park.
As for food, yesterday we dined at Busaba Eathai, that one i was wondering about before, it is good food, but i felt it was better two years back, or maybe i was not that hungry. It is located in Soho not far from Piccadilly circus.

No plans for tomorrow yet

Mom strikes again -- round 2

In between flights, i dropped by my parents house to say hi and bye.
Mom told me that microsoft has released an OS called Vista. She talked about VOIP and she also told me that some words we use in the internet has become official english words like Googling , stemming from the verb TO GOOGLE.

I checked for that in here is what i have found

The verb Google was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) on June 15, 2006, and to the 11th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in July 2006.The OED notes the question, "Has anyone Googled?" in the Usenet Newsgroup alt.fan.british-accent on October 10, 1999 as the first recorded usage of the word.

By the way, creating new words (like googling) to reflect new inventions , phenomena etc.. is called NEOLOGISM

according to wikipeadia A neologism (Greek νεολογισμός [neologismos], from νέος [neos] new + λόγος [logos] word, speech, discourse + suffix -ισμός [-ismos] -ism) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created ("coined") — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context. The term "e-mail", as used today, is an example of a neologism.
Neologisms are by definition "new", and as such are often directly attributable to a specific individual, publication, period or event. The term "neologism" was itself coined around 1800; so for some time in the early 19th Century, the word "neologism" was itself a neologism.
Neologisms can also refer to an existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning.

Finally, i have found out that mom does not have the book 'the world is flat', rather she is a member in a book discussion group who are currently discussing this book

Bahrain

I cannot believe this this is my fourth night in Bahrain! I just feel like having arrvied yesterday.
I am staying at the Sheraton. It is really good, but expensive. For example, the daily rate for an internet connection is 30 USD.
Anyway, it has been hectic and and will continue to be until my departure time at 12 tomorrow. I still have to meet two different parties before i leave. It will not be long before i am back again. Most probably on the 5th of May.

Anything worth attending

I am trying to find if there is anything worth watching this week end in London.

checked the Royal Opera House, but nothing appealing there.

As for the West End, no i am not going to watch Mama Mia one more time. I can understand why Phantom of the Opera has been playing for so long, but Mama Mia musical does not stand any chance. If not, I guess an expedition to search for that one nice restaurant should start. It serves Asian food, but cannot remember the name. It is off Oxford street toward the west end and Soho. People Queue up to get seated, and then you end up sharing a table with others. Once i find it, i will definitely cease the moment and write about it, Excellent food.

Ammmmar

Serendipity

I talked about the the book "The World is Flat" in previous posts
http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-mother-is-asking-strange-question-i.html
Yesterday, we were invited for dinner at my cousin house, when he told me that he wanted to show me a book he is currently reading; It was "THE WORLD IS FLAT". I thought that he showed me the book after reading my blog, but what not the case, it was quite serendipitous.
It is a big book and you should read and evaluate the content carefuly and not take everything in it for granted

Ammar Sajdi

Of Course, how did i miss that!

As a reply for my previous post(http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-mother-is-asking-strange-question-i.html) in which i wondered where the feather came in the Apache group logo

Apache, of course, the name of Native American tribes (Indians).
This is where the feather comes from!!!

Ammar Sajdi

My mother is asking strange question - i freaked out

My mother, Amal Jardaneh Sajdi, 68 years, Arabic Literature Graduate from The American University of Beirut asked me questions that made me feel that she must have a new 21 century new hang out group.

Ammar, she asked, Is it true that there is a company that is not happy with Microsoft monopoly and is called Linux? and what is this company??!!

I tried to explain that Linux is not a company and tried to explain that it is an important part of an open source endeavor etc ...

After a moment of silence...

Ammar, What is Apache?
I was really stunned; this is not Al-mutanbi nor Ibn Zaidoon stuff! Where is Mom getting this vocabulary from? must be a new hang out!! not my auntie(s) akeed! nor the rest of the Shemisani Gang! Wow, questions are getting harder to explain!!
Apache, the Server with the feather (have no idea where the feather come from )
Well, ok, a public-domain open source Web Server developed by a loosely-knit group of programmers. The first version of Apache, based on , National Center for Supercomputing Application (NCSA) at the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign (UIUC) (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/) httpd Web Server, was developed in 1995. Core development of the Apache Web server is performed by a group of about 20 volunteer programmers, called the Apache Group. However, because the source code is freely available, anyone can adapt the server for specific needs, and there is a large public library of Apache add-ons. In many respects, development of Apache is similar to development of the Linux operating system.

I was not sure that she liked the answer... Then from her facial expression, there seemed to be more question coming.. Finally, Is it true that Y2K computer problems were largely fixed by Indians??? This one beats me. Mostly likely yes, but i have no information about this issue.

Then, finally, my Mom made the confession, she is reading a book called "The World is Flat" By Thomas Friedman. The book turned out to be a best seller talking about Globalization.

Bow of respect, Mom has always been an intellect, ruling supreme the tip of the intellectual iceberg of Ammanians. She is a source of inspiration for me. I must buy the book before i fall behind the 21 century.

Ammar Sajdi

Spring

This post is supposed to be full of pictures, but as usual, there is something i should forget, otherwise, it is not me anymore!! I forgot to bring my Olympus 6 MPixel digital camera.
I went with my friend Maen Suhiamat on a late afternoon drive to explore the country side on the northern suburbs of Amman. Both of us did not have lunch so we picked up a lousy fast food meal and started the drive. We reached the area of interest, Some 15 Km North of Amman, on hills approximately rising 1050 M above sea level in an area called Al-kamsh, some 10 Km north of Abu Nsair. We picked a nice peak just to consume the food. It was so cold and very windy, we could not find a suitable place to shield us from the wind, we ended up hiding behind some big rock,, It was not enjoyable when your hands become as cold as ice while trying to eat. We went back to the car and took some off road trails. The sceneries were really fascinating, Old Oak tree, greenery etc..
We drove through villages (3alook, Masarra) then moved south east until we arrived to a village called "Birane", an area that i visited several times on many mostly pleasant occasions. Boy, days has passed, and Birane has changed, it is now more developed, the streets are wider and better than the last time i visited it. I was hoping to do something similar and investigate another area before spring is over, however i do not think I will be in town for the coming 10 days

ammar sajdi

Carnage at Virginia Tech

The US media has been preoccupied with the most horrifying carnage that took place at Virginia Tech. While i would like to extend my deepest sorrow for the American people for their loss due to this act of terror and to the families who are mourning their beloved ones and for the mothers, who are crying their children, I would like to remind Mr. Bush and the American people that IRAQI AND PALESTINIAN MOTHERS LOVE THEIR CHILDREN TOO


Ammar Sajdi

Human clock

Yes, this is a real time clock showing current time digitally. Digits are mad up of human formation. To test it yourself and see your PC time realtime visit
http://billychasen.com/clock/
It is an Ingenious clock, do not pretend that you do not like it, you cannot resist but to like

You've got mail

Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, was shown on MBC2 tonight, I watched this movie several times before. Never, however, from its begining. Each time I watch it, it is as if I am watching it for the first time. Once upon a time, Meg Ryan was my favorite. Melancholically, the days when she shined have long been gone! Cast Away, was an Incredibly memorable movie for Tom Hank

Ammar

RJ Voodoo

Since I am doing lots of traveling this period, with a rather volatile schedule, it is a fairly messy job to organize the itinerary in an optimum way. I vested the RJ new website; and I liked the fact that it allows you to reserve your seat on the main deck of the aircraft.
Anyway, I used the website to reserve a flight to Bahrain, and the most impressive feature of the site is that it can predict the future. I logged back to the website to give more information about my reservation for my travel agent, but was really pissed off when I did not find any traces of all the reservations I did the previous day. While I was rearranging the reservation again through the agent in the classical manner, I received a call from Bahrain asking me to postpone the trip till next Saturday. thumps us RJ, you simply had the talent to foresee my future. I hope they RJ can tell me if there is any change on my Trip to London late next week. May be I should travel directly from Bahrain. I will just make a reservation to London through the website and track it. I would be a nice feature if the system can also know about postmonements and book me accordingly

Zareef

One of two Iranian restaurants I know of in Amman. It is located within a close proximity of Abdoun round-about. We went yesterday for dinner
The setting is nice, you could ask for seating in the upper floor over looking abdoun round about. It is a casual restaurant. The menu is good and the food is excellent.
We had mixed Iranian grill with different taste of Iranian rice. I had a spinach soup which I liked very much (may be because if you talk about spinach and me, we click)

I recomment the place (so far)

Ammar Sajdi

They have done again

I would like to congratulate my Uncle Aziz and my cousins Izzat and Mutaz Sajdi for winning The King Abdullah II award for Excellence. Consulting Engineering Center (CEC) has won this award before (2003-2004) for Small to Medium Size Firms. Four companies in Jordan has won this prestigious award twice so far. The announcement has been made last week.

Keep up the good work!

Traveling again

It is getting imminant , i am leaving to Bahrain again on Monday, staying for one or two days.
I have got lots of traveling looming
Next week to the UK
The week after, probably again to Bahrain
Then have to be back by May 5th to Amman, as i am conducting an advanced Oracle Security course.
I will finish the course and again to Bahrain.
I know many people like to travel, but anybody doing the kind of traveling i am doing must be getting really sick and tiered. Late night flights, early morning flights, packing, unpacking, getting late to the Airport!! getting used to the pillows at Hotel, remebering the different exchange rates. And the four things i cannot affort to lose while traveling

1) Myself
2) My passport
3) My laptop
4) Business Card holder

As i am really in deep sh.t without any of the above items

Hugh (John Mungo) Grant - Music & Lyrics

In all honesty, I was in for a better show! for Hugh Grant, the actor who was born in London back in 1960 and studied English at Oxford. He became internationally known following his role in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, Best Actor Golden Globe).

The movie revolved around him and Drew Barrymore and as such lacks diversity. The entire movie is about composing a song for some hot chick called Cora. I had to look at my watch several times during the movie as I was getting board, which incidentally, allowed me to find a draw back about my top-pick "advertise-when-possible" Tissot watch; it does not perform well in darkness; Simply stated, I could not read the time. Possibly, nevertheless, it is an aging problem that has to do with me and need not necessarily be attributed to the poor Tissot

In 1995, while dating Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh was arrested in Hollywood for indecent conduct with a prostitute, Divine Brown, in a public place. He offered an apology for this on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

To read the more about this incident , http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/1995/06/28/hughgrant.xml

ammar

Spontaneity

It was Firday 11 AM when the phone rang. It was my sister suggesting that we go to Aqaba to check our "Never-have-seen" apartment at Tala Bay, and return back to Amman on the same day.
When I was younger, I was an easy going, easy to please, and spontaneous guy. As I grew, I became a bit stubborn, hard to please and less spontaneous. Yesterday, I was profoundly impressed by my Spontaneity. At 11:30, me, Jumana, My sister Luma and her husband Zaher where cruising in their 4 wheel drive to Aqaba! To be a bit more honest, what drove towards this venture was not really my urge to see Tala Bay, rather, I was aware of the fact that there was an unstable weather system. The nature of such system is Jordan manifests itself more explicitly in the southern and eastern desert lands of Jordan. It was exactly what I expected. At around 1:30 we were at the highest point on the Desert highway, Ras Al-naqab, rising some 1500 Meters above Sea Level (of course I used my watch to verify that http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2006/12/my-new-watch.html).And Heaven have mercy, Wadi Rum was not the rocky desert area you would expect to see. It was all hidden behind a huge mass of spectacular cloud formation touching the ground, typical to those formed when a cold air front meets a warm air mass; Lightening was occurring at an intriguing rate of almost once every 30 seconds and pouring rain with a drop size reaching the size of a bean.

Rare phenomenon indeed.

At 2:00, we were approaching Aqaba, the skies were almost clear with rain reminiscent. At 2:30 we reached Aqaba, the weather was fascinating, a cool breeze under sunny skies. We immediately went to Floka (fish restaurant) reserved a table for 4 to be readu at 3:45 and ordered the food, so it would be ready at 3:45. we immediately headed to Tala Bay, lcoated at the southern tip of aqaba (10 Km north of the Saudi Borders). To be honest, Tala Bay looks better than I expected, it is a glamorous place; Good size Marina filled with Yachts, Jest Skies etc ..Laguna in between buildings, walk ways etc.. In 45 minutes we were back at the restaurant, where we found the dishes almost ready. We had a nice see food meal (of course paying a hefty price tag for it). At 4:30, we left the restaurant to the Movenpick and had a delicious banana split as appetizers. At 5 PM, we left to what is called "city center" duty free mall right at the northern tip of Aqaba,. We shopped, I bought a Clarks shoes, and at 6:05 we started our journey back to Amman. Wadi Rum, Ras Al-Naqab was all soaking wet with Water, but was not raining any more. However, someplace far to the east, we could also see lightening breaking the eternal darkness.At around 9:15, we were back home. The only thing we did not do in Aqaba was what appears to have become a ritual for Jordanians who visit Aqaba; namely, Buy Cashew nuts, bottles of Rani Juice and 7 Kg of Bananas (these items sell a bit cheaper in Aqaba).
Ammar Sajdi
Amman - Jordan
April 13, 07

Thank God it is Thursday (TGIT)

I need no reason to be euphoric on Thursdays, how about when there is a reason
Today, I will complete a very rich course to FASTLINK IT members about database centric development techniques covering features up to and including 10g. There are lots and lots of topics that span a wide array of technologies. And just to name a few

• Exposing Oracle stored procedures as Web Services,
• Exchanging Database record in XML format.
• Doing Interprocess communication using PIPES and Queues, Sending and receiving
• packets using TCP sockets from PL/SQL.
• Demystifying Analytical Function used in DW OLAP
• Configuring Heterogeneous Service for distributed access
• Data Encryption
• Row Level Security
• many more
• It took me hours and hours of preparation and testing.
• Many more

Thank God it is Over, now we can hit the movies with a fairly un-pre-occupied-mind

Ammar sajdi

Ammar Sajdi

Bonsai - An ancient Art

Bonsai is the art of cultivating miniature trees. The pine, a tree that grows many meters tall in wild nature, is the most typical plant used for bonsai, but many other tree species can be used.
To achieve miniaturization, the tree is frequently transferred into new pots, and on that occasion its roots are cut a little bit. Bonsai skills include the knowledge of when and how much to cut the roots, how much fertilizer and water is ideal, and which branches should be pruned to give the plant an aesthetic look.

Join the Bonsai Society

http://www.absbonsai.org/

I hate single-quotes

When you use SQL, you must enclose string values with Single-Quotes.

This sounds fair and square.

Things get messy when your strings themselves contain single-quote. A new technique has been introduced by Oracle to circumvent the hurdles. However, before describing that solution, let me describe the problem and its classical solution before showing the enhancement

Example (let me start with the normal straight forward case)
If I am using Oracle SQL and I want to display the following text

The Customer said YES

Then

SQL> SELECT ' The Customer said YES ' AS title from dual;

TITLE
-----------------------
The Customer said YES

Now, if the output should read

The Customer said 'YES' -- The difference her is that YES is surrounded with single-quotes

In this case, you cannot simply expect to just add a single quote around YES and pray that things shall work fine. You will be confusing the hell out of the parser because it cannot tell which quotes are to be displayed or the quotes that end the string

I mean the following SQL is a NO NO situation

SQL>SELECT 'The Customer said 'YES' ' AS title from dual;

*ERROR at line 1:ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected

Traditionally, we could use two consecutive single-quote around YES to tell the parser that this is not the end of the string but rather an actual single quote character that needs to be displayed

1* SELECT ' The Customer said ' 'YES' ' ' AS title from dual;

TITLE
------------------------
The Customer said 'YES'

This will become even messier, if the entire string needs to be surrounded by single quotes

'The Customer said 'YES' '

New Approach, The Q-quote mechanism
In this approach, you can define your Single-Quote character which enables you to specify q or Q followed by a single quote and then another character to be used as the quote delimiter.

i.e. I want to define a character that indicates the beginning of the string and the terminator of the string.
If, for example, you want to utilize # as the single quote mark, then this is what you need to do when you encounter the beginning of the string, write the letter q followed by a single-quote followed by # and when the string is finished you just add # followed by ' as shown below

AMMAR>SELECT q'# The Customer said 'YES' #' as TITLE from dual;

TITLE
-------------------------
The Customer said 'YES'

Ammar Sajdi

Push the button, and feel the power!

Because I am so in loving with last minute packing, I almost always forget something. It could be anything, but I never miss what I forgot on the last trip, cuz my mind is so alert to packing what I missed the last time.
a few days back I flew to Oman for a two day business trip, and while on transit at Bahrain Airport, it flashed to my mind that I did not pack my traditional Gillette razor. While looking for a Gillette razor I found something new "A Gillette M3Power razor"

It is a manual razor with normal blades, but is equipped with a battery. What the hell is a battery for? If I still need to move my hand up and down to shave??
This is the charm of the 21st century,, The tip of the razor (where the blades are) vibrates.
I do not know what value this is adding to the shaving process?? the process is for sure a bit ticklish, noisy and feels weird!! As for the quality for shave, i am not decided.
It is also event driven, there is a push button that can trigger the vibration or stop it!
I don’t get it, Generation of shaving techniques since i started shaving and i can hardly note any difference!! What next! Laser guided shaving machine?

Ammar Sajdi

Salary Theorem

This theorem stipulates that the less you work, the more money you make

read on

Sunset

Ammar Sajdi

Dont miss this place

Jal3ad Again!


I visited Jal3ad again two weeks back with the company guys. This is the second visit, I wrote about my first visit to Jalad in my third blog post back in August 14th, 2005 http://oraclejo.blogspot.com/2005/08/blog-post.html . I liked it this time more because of the greenery that this area enjoys during spring, really breath taking views. I had to reduce the resolution to make the size of the images, which resulted in deterioration of image quality. The actual images and the acual scenes are much nices, but this should give you an idea

That is me by the way, Ammar

Warm! Warm! weather coming up!!

Be careful,

The three coming days are going to be really warm. Temperature could be toping 27 Degree in Amman

Jennifer Aniston on Oprah winfrey

born on February 11, 1969 Sherman Oaks, California, USA

Her father (Ioannis Anastassakis) is Greek and was born in the island of Crete. He was an actor himself. Jennifer Anastassakis spend her child in Greece and N.Y.

Tonight and on Oprah Winfrey Show, Jennifer put an end to all rumors and declared that she did not undergo any cosmatic surgical procedure of any kind (Jobs). Still, nevertheless, and at age of 38, looking as good as ever. (Brad Pitt must have gone out of his mind)

recently in 2007, she received People's Choice Award: Favorite Female Movie Star, The Break-Up