Think tank

I do not like reviews by request and usually turn them down, this one is a bit different since I gave a warning that it will be an honest one :} and they accepted!

Think tank is a new training center, their specialty is in the iWorld, every thing mac. Of course I will skip the cliche-introduction its there in their FB or IG or Twitter account, what I will focus on is what I really saw there. First of all skip the back filled with paper cartons elevator, make sure you ask them for the nice ones when you visit them, now the place it self is new and very roomy (I like new places :} very neat), and they are education oriented, which is why I wrote this post. First they said they offer free training classes for your iDevice, be it a phone or computer, then the paid courses which range from getting to know coding to Adobe products, the links above have a lot of information in that area.

The enthusiasm in the people there to "educate" is overwhelming, its been a while since I saw young Kuwaitis who want to educate, a small business that is not interested in the usual food-clothes related consumption products. Yes, I can not say my evaluation for the final product "how good is their training is" but I can say that I am proud of think tank and would love to take a course with them, the most attracting issue they dropped in as they spoke about their project is "we don't want to only give the tools and teach you about a program, or finish a curriculum, that you can find in youtube or any other training center, we want to encourage creativity and engage students to accomplish something".

So if you are interested in iEducation or coding, Adobe products, check them out :}

BarCamp Kuwait #2

Saturday
2-April-2011

I came a little late I missed out 5 presentations! although I saw a little bit of one of them online, the stream was an amazing idea, you could even hear the mentos suffering with plastic bag tearing sounds, and then it ends! May the souls of all those mentos rest in peace.

I also managed to get a cookie :} There was a huge cookie fight! Silent but a lot of munching went around.

 

Now for the real juicy part, the presentations, I didn't take pictures of all the presentations, although I was in a killer seat! Was trying to focus on what all those really smart geeks are saying. Howeve barcamp Kuwait's website has it all, an excellent post containing information about the presentations and presenters. They made my life easy :p will just link to their links.

So the list of presentations and presenters is as follows (lazily copied from BarCamp)

1. WarDriving Kuwait, by MBH.
2. Cloud Computing, by Bashar Abdullah.
3. Python in the Workforce, by Burhan Khalid.
4. Cookies Vending Machine, by Dherar Al-Rushoud.
5. WebsiteSpark and BizSpark, by Microsoft.
6. User Experience Design, by Haider Al-Mosawi.
7. Kuwait Paper Dump Mobile, by Salem Marafi.
8. BioBanks and the Importance of Informatics in Kuwait, by Dari Al-Huwail.
9. Internet at a Glance in Kuwait, by Talal Al-Awadhi.
10. Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, by Tammy Camp.
11. Open Source in Business, by Bashar Al-Abdulhadi.
12. Scaling Web Applications, by Ahmad Al-Ibrahim.
13. Q8Traffic, by Nasser Al-Hilal.
14. Patient Data Privacy, by Dr. Mohammad.

One more caution, I am not an IT person, barely with an MIS minor, so technically I might not do the presentations fair, I will view them of a simple user view so forgive me if I don't review from an IT point of view :) I will start from the 6th.


User Experience Design, by Haider Al-Mosawi

The presentation carried a lot of concepts on how to design your website/service/product to be user-friendly, because in the end you do need a satisfied user, although there are various reasons that might force some users to use something they don’t like "having a large group of people you connect with are into it" (e.g.: Facebook, I for one do not like it and don’t recall when I last signed in, but keep it for events and people mainly!). presented information was good, light, presenter sent it out well, luckily not too technical so I kinda grasped everything.

Kuwait Paper Dump Mobile, by Salem Marafi

Kuwait Paper Dump Mobile presentation was the most attracting one to me when I first read the schedule, because I think its one of THE most successful non-profit quiet online Kuwait projects, its a website with a simple idea that grew with time, from the wonderful blogger 3baid, it is very Eco-friendly and useful service! I quote from their website

"Kuwait Paper Dump’s Goals
Our mission is to reduce the need for paper by creating an online reference of information that is traditionally distributed by paper media. Kuwait Paper Dump is an environmentally oriented not-for-profit organisation."

The project grew with time and now there are more contributors :) I hope that one day it becomes "the website" all brochure distributors go to, and we would stop or at least limit the unnecessary printing. After that being said, the mobile version would be defiantly interesting, since I do benefit from KPD a lot.

Now there was a lot of technical stuff shown like codes and how to and which language or method was used to make the mobile version of the website, YET the presentation was not boring nor stuffed with gibberish to me! I enjoyed it very much, a perfect balance between the really heavy IT material and fun, a highlight that made the information flow much easier to my non-IT brain. Also the graph in slide #7 illustrating the way KPD mobile version works was really easy to comprehend for me. Good work Salem and all of the KPD team.

BioBanks and the Importance of Informatics in Kuwait, by Dari Al-Huwail

The barefoot guy :p The presentation was light and very informative, they work in Dasman Diabetes Institute. He spoke about having a bio data bank for all the people around Kuwait, a bio bank is simply all the medical information about a person that is /was/ will be recorded about a person during his lifetime all gathered in one massive database. I thought it was impressive and a GOLD mine, pity I didn’t talk to him in time of why I think its so precious! But I will write it here & will try to e-mail him with my ideas!

As a person with a statistical background I think its amazing data! A lot of analysis can be done, the simplest that popped into mind is a correlation study between diabetics and the medical history of a patient, so instead of hearing “its genetic” there might be other factors hidden. Especially that such a disease is widely spread. Also those findings will ease the awareness campaigns aiming to remove those factors leading to diabetes. Presenter was really easy going relaxed. Away from the personal security issue I think its vital information to be kept electronically, if we as patients can access it and have our medical history anywhere for any Doctor to use them, our life will be a lot more easier than it is, now the security, authentication and authority issues are a huge debate. Yet the concept is lovely.

Internet at a Glance in Kuwait, by Talal Al-Awadhi

This was not a heavy one and a more close to the heart, since it contained a lot offfffffff "Statistics" :} The presentation was a rundown for the internet usage in the world and in Kuwait specifically and how the future is "on the go", meaning mobile developed applications/websites/services are a must, the market is going towards them mainly because "for me as a user" its easy and accessible anywhere! It was a light one, liked the presenter he presented the information in a simple clear way. I liked the time related changes in the internet in Kuwait , brought up a lot of memories, I could almost recall the dial-up sound when we used to connect through KEMS, the weekends were a vicious fight through the busy lines.

Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, by Tammy Camp

Now this is a cool one, we had a video conference with Tammy, so the content is mainly about what the title above, Silicon Valley is one of the best places a web-developer can be, all the resources are around the corner and idea hunters are there too. She later asked about the people around in Kuwait, whats new there what are we up to. The conference was fun and I loved her smile!

Open Source in Business, by Bashar Al-Abdulhadi

Now this was the cherry on top! I did not know him in person nor KuwaitNET but I follow him on twitter, the biggest con is that the presentation was outdated "which he said and apologized for in the beginning" also many friends told me that some of the information are wrong and not valid currently, nonetheless the pros are a lot :} I always like to eat the frog first then go to the nice stuff :p here it goes...

He spoke about open source business related programs and how you can cut back on cost as a fresh new entrepreneur with facts and numbers, in the presentation he showed us a comparison he made in 2007 "I think?!" when he first started his business between the Microsoft business suit and an open source one. The main idea that attracted me is: there is always an other way to do things away from Microsoft, now I highly respect them for the office package and more, also for sponsoring barcamp YET the monopoly move was not nice, back in the day :p Now things did change but history was made. To jump away from any software/hardware that is very familiar is scary! I know I was hasty when I got my mac but now simply love the shift.

His enthusiasm when presenting was very good and also the Microsoft fight was amusing between him and the organizer Shaymaa (a.k.a AhamShay) who was a great sport about it. Now I can firmly say, I do not fear the open source products, the presentation was done on an open source software, his mobile was turned into a slide flipping thingie through an open source program :) The choice is yours and it can be done. In his twitter page he defined him self with a few words I quote "Open Source Enthusiast" and he made me enthusiastic about it! WELL DONE.

Scaling Web Applications, by Ahmad Al-Ibrahim

He is one of the KoutBo6 guys, now from all the presentations I attended this was the heaviest. Again the fact that am not into IT made my life so hard in his presentation, he elaborated on a lot of technical stuff where I wished he gave the big picture of what that technology did for them, yet those could be beneficial to all the IT people out there. He seemed a bit tired or drained, kesar kha6ri, he could have presented it in a better way especially that this website is amazing, it is one of the most successful Kuwait web-projects I've ever known. He spoke about how their website is being operated, which I thought would be tough, an online game is time consuming and all the syncing and time related information transfer is pretty sensitive! and they did it :D I don't think I am being fair to this one but again as a non-IT person I wished to know more about their work on the website in an easier way.

Q8Traffic, by Nasser Al-Hilal

This was an adhoc presentation for one of my FAVORITE twitter accounts in Kuwait :D I love @q8traffic, its a simple twitter account made my Nasser Al-Hillal that takes tweets from around twitter land, that contain the hash-tag #q8traffi and post them in that account and you by following q8traffic you can get on the spot user-made updates! How cool is that? He made this simple useful idea a reality and non-profit :} a young Kuwaiti initiative that we all thank him for *I for one, do, very much* with all this traffic going on, q8traffic has made my life so easy. Also it feels really good to be able to help others to know ahead what they are facing out there :) the user-related additions are very attracting to me. Well done and wish that more development comes to q8traffic.

On half of the q8traffic presentation I left I was drained lol. Now the over all event pros and cons, the above pretty much says the pros since we saw and heard amazing people present their work, all of them with no exception has added a lot to me, some more than others but they all added :)

The room was terrible! Two poles inside?! WHY @!@ I hoped for a better bigger one. Time was really a big issue for me, the event is so long! I think we should make Barcamp marry PechaKucha :} However, I would like to thank Microsoft and ALL the lovely event organizers (Shayma - Majed - Haider) and the others who helped around and the one who's camera kept finishing the battery and had to call for help all the time lol, you all were amazing. nothing beats a relaxed small live local event! Had an amazing afternoon/evening/night that day :>

p.s.: sorry for the delay o.o

I got BB'ed

Pic from GSM Arena

و دخلت دائرة الهبة مع تزايد اللي حولي من مستخدمين البلاك بيري، لحد الحين ما كملت اسبوع استخدام، التقالم نوعا ما عسر اول يومين بس بعدين ايدي خذت على الكي بورد، اللي صدمني اهو بساطة و بدائية القوائم الداخلية للجهاز! شكل قوائم سوني اركسون افضل و متقدم بشكل اكبر، توقعت اكثر من هالتلفون و انهم يكونون تعبانين على شكل القوائم و سهولة استخدامها بس لقيت انها القوائم نوعا ما متخلفة عن باقي التلفونات. للعلم سوني اركسوني القديم يكفي و يوفي الغرض لاني استخدم التلفون علشان اتصل و اطرش مسجات و بس! و كلش ما فكرت اني ادش هالهبه او استخدم تلفون فيه مميزات اكثر من انه تلفون

اول يومين جني شااااااايب اخز الكي بورد و اطبع حرف حرف و انا احاول استوعب هالتكنولوجيا اللي جدامي و احاول أأقلم اصابعي مع الدقم الصغار، و كل ما علمني احد شغله انبهر بشكل عبييييط!! طبعا الكل يعلمك بالمسنجر مال البلاك بيري :> غيره تقريبا مجهول لغالبية المستخدمين يعني لما سألت عن شلون ممكن اغير بشكل القوائم و عن الثيمات و هالسوالف محد عنده فكره لوول كل من لاهي بالمسنجر و ارتكاز الاستخدام عليه

فيه خيارات و فيه خيارات حق الخيارات و فيه خيارات حق الخيارات داخل البوك و خارج البوك لوول! مع الجهاز بوك علشان يحفظه و بكل بروفايل اكو خيارات لصوت التلفون خارج هالبوك و داخل هالبوك، و في خيارات لصوت المسنجر و خيارات لصوت المسج من المسنجر "و كل وحدة في لها قائمة جزئية منشقة عن القائمة الاساسية"، هم لصوت الرسائل النصية، رسائل الوسائط ،، الخ الخ

و على الرغم من ان كل هالخيارات تتيح لك مجال بانك تخلي توتك السودة اكثر خصوصية و تميز الا انها نوعا ما مملة و مزعجه! بس بما انها شي تسويه مره وحده نبلعها :> بس شي يعل القلب

حسيت الجهاز يقولي:

رنة المسنجر: بالبوك
شنو تبين الرنة؟
جم مره يهتز الجهاز؟
تبين صوت ولا بدون صوت؟
تبين الجهاز يقوم يكفخج لي اشتغل المسنجر؟

رنة المسنجر: برا البوك
شنو تبين الرنة؟
جم مره يهتز الجهاز؟
تبين صوت ولا بدون صوت؟
تبين الجهاز يقوم يكفخج لي اشتغل المسنجر؟

خلصنا منها!! عبالكم افتكينا :> لا طبعا

رنة المسج لما توصل بالمسنجر : بالبوك
شنو تبين الرنة؟
جم مره يهتز الجهاز؟
تبين صوت ولا بدون صوت؟
تبين الجهاز يقوم يكفخج لي وصل مسج بالمسنجر؟

الخ الخ الللللللللخ

خلصنا من البروفايلات اتجهت لاهم خاصية! المنبه، اللي اعتمد عليه بشكل كلي من التلفون علشان يقعدني للدوام، اكو منبه واحد وتحدد اذا تبيه يشتغل ايام الاسبوع او اليوم بس او ما تبي! المشكله انه ما يتيح لك انك تخلي اكثر من منبه مبرمج، تلفوني اللي قبله كنت مخليه لايام الاسبوع منبهااااات "نومي حيل خفيف كما الريشه" و منبه للجمعة و السبت ، فقدت هالخاصية معالتوتة السودا! بس للحين قاعدة استعمل تلفوني السابق كمنبه و اهي خاصية حلوه بالسوني اركسون حتى لو مافيه كرت اذا متبرمج على وقت معين للتنبيه ايتم يشتغل عليه، بس الوضع مو أزمه يعني :) ما اقدر اقول انها علة جايده ، العلة المنيووووووووز مالت التلفوووون عسارة مو طبيعية! ولا البلوتوث هذا قصة ثااانيه، و للحين ما تفرغت اني اشوف برامج اتسهل هالسوالف بس لي جدام بدور و علشان جذيه مابي اطول بالحش فيه :> ليما احس اني عرفت كل ربعة فيه و استخدمت كل شغله فيه

الرسائل النصية

واجهة التعامل مع الرسائل النصيه حسستني اني ابي ابجي! بالضبط قاعدين نقارن ملف "تكست" بسيط مع ملف "وورد" لمعالجة النصوص! ماكو مقارنة كلش ما بين تلفوني السابق و هالتلفون فشل بشكل كبير في شكل و ترتيب الرسائل النصية

عندي سوالف واجد عن تجربتي مع البلاك بيري و للحديث بقية فيما بعد

Im not the only one!!!!

Yesterday I received an sms from Aramex telling me that my shipment has arrived, so i went there to pick it up. Two packages as requested, went home acted like a tech. freak getting the HYPE over a new piece of technology :D "well not so new but its new to me" snapping pictures and all, for the packages and unwrapping them. First package was as requested, the softwares are a ok :)



MS Office 08 for mac & iWork

The second package which I kept unwrapping slowly :D and taking pictures all the way since it had تفاحتي المقرومة

I ordered a MacBook [MB403LL/A 13.3" Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive) White] , since I have a plan to own also other stuff from Apple, I chose this one particularly to start the familiarization stage and begin the shift to mac with and it is:

1- Very affordable.
2- Has specifications that I need and a little more.
2- Storage very convenient since I don't keep much files on the local hard drive, I use an external one for security and backup.
3- Its size is perfect for me, very easy to handle.

Along the unwrapping process I was checking my name all over it, the invoice is correct, right item, correct billed amount, right product description



Holding my breath!!! I was so excited to see this in my own hands :D

and then!!!!



With the hype that hit me I thought naaa this is just an ad for the black! not reading whats posted about the product information, I was in denial actually!



then the reality hit me, I unwrapped it fully to see that I got the MacBook [MB404LL/A 13.3" Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive) Black] which only differs from the one I ordered with the external color! and the HD is bigger, hence the price difference. I loved the Apple white why would I want a black one! most of the laptops are black/ grey!!!

I was in shock and disappointed, I want my WHITIE :( 160GB not the bigger black one, its a good device but its not what I requested nor paid for, its not right to take something more expensive than the one I paid for. So when I decided to replace it there was a condition that you are obliged to deliver it to Amazon! meaning that I will have to PAY for shipping !!! why??? its their mistake, they want their item they should pay all the fees, however they clearly stated that they would bring the replacement item at no charge from my side! still to get the one i have to them I have to pay! and as I said this morning in "Some Contrast"
حريمتهم ادفع لهم و اهم غلطانين

So I sent an e-mail, which they said they wont be able to replace it right now however someone will contact me in 24 hours! I will wait and see.

To my K750i ,, كفيت ووفيت

ِِA serious fall right on the asphalt caused the screen to get broken on the side, which was the only reason that spared the poor device the agony of it being my mobile. The K750i survived ME for more than a year, which is with a regular user comes to be 10 years! Falling down is one of the many activities any mobile I own should be used to, however this last fall caused the screen to be broken! which made me buy an other one, although am waiting for the K850i with 5 Mega Pixel camera OR the T650i ,,, tough luck



The broken screen up close and the things on the screen that appear like dust are actually scratches that grew over time on my poor K750i



An other view of the bends & scratches spread around the mobile cover along with the lost "Quick Share" sticker that used to fill the space under the Zero in the keypad



The Sony Ericsson word printed beside the logo also faded away, which is a thing that I till now can not explain how did it happen


Last but not least my choice for the time being was the SonyEricsson K810i. So far 0 falls, days elapsed 2, a Q80-ChillGirl record...

For the record, the K750i is still working, the only thing that made me get an other one is that the scratch in the screen bothered me & almost sliced my cheek ;p

From here & there

video codec called H.264
"delivers stunning quality at remarkably low data rates"

No reason for this piece of information except me liking it :D

و انا افتر بالنت لقيت هالبيت

بلادي وان جارت علي عزيزة ** واهلي وان شحوا علي كرام
[اجهل من يكون الكاتب، اكو احد يعرف؟]

لكن هل هالكلام صحيح؟
و الى اي حد نستطيع تحمل ماكتب اعلاه؟ اقول حد على افتراض الاسوء من قبل البلد او الاهل، على الرغم من اعتراضي على نقطة البلاد ان جارت، البلاد وطن و الوطن لا يجور! حكامه او شعبه ممكن بس البلد بريء، و يرجع الامر للبشر القاطنين لهذه البلاد ان يصلحوها او يهدموا مابها. و عليه فنحن نعود للبشر، الاهل ام غيرهم، لاي حد يستطيع الفرد تحمل الجور و الشح او اي نوع من الظلم؟

Back to tech.....

"1. What is a RAR file

RAR is the native format of WinRAR archiver. Like other archives, RAR files are data containers, they store one or several files in the compressed form. After you downloaded RAR file from Internet, you need to unpack its contents in order to use it." [from]

What made dig this up is that I downloaded a book & want to read it. What I understood from all of this is that its a format of file compression similar to ZIP only it enables more things to be compressed, format wise.

المكتبة العربية

موقع اكثر من رائع يحوي الكثير من الكتب، افكر بارسال شكر الى القائمين عليه، لانه بالفعل يحوي مكتبة عامة الكترونية رائعة. موقع يفخر به كل مهتم بالقراءة، شلون طحت عليه؟ من مدونة جبله و بهالموضوع، شكرا لفريق جبله و تحديدا كاتب الموضوع الاخ عتيج الصوف

I fixed it!

كان عندي مشكله بالكمبيوتر و حيرتني فتره طويييله و لاني وحده عنيده لازم احل المشكله بنفسي و استنفذ كل الحيل و العقل اللي عندي بعدين افكر باللجوء إلى الفنيين المختصين و هم لاني اؤمن بفكرة ان الحياة اتعلّم أحب اكرف عمري و استفيد، و في ليلة اليأس و القرار بأن أحل مشكلتي عند المختصين صباح اليوم الأحد! انحلت المشكله بعد جهد جهيد و زيارة لمواقع مللتني بس النتيجه خلتني انسى اللي تعبته خلال ساعتين :) و لهذا قررت اكتب هالحادثة باللجهة اللي انا نفسي ما ادري اهي عاميه ولا فصحى! بس المهم انها من قلبي

بالنهاية اكتشفت اني ما ادري وين دقمه حيوية! و بعد مالقيتها تميت افكر هل كل اللي سويته كان له داعي ولا لاء؟ مادري ولا راح ادري بس تعلمت درس مهم اليوم

القراءة و معرفة كل حيثيات المنتج اللي انت قاعد تكرفه أهم من إستخدامه

I should read more