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