http://www.za3tar.net Comments, Observations, and Brain Dumps from Ramallah (at heart). Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:39:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I am almost halfway through my summer internship in this new town. One thing that I am glad about is that there is an Arabic/Middle-Eastern street in town with a bunch of Arabic shops, turkish restaurants, and some coffee-shops, something I deeply miss in my collegetown. I've been diligent to eat ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/06/17/the-coffeeshop/ For a while now, Google Maps has been displaying the names of towns and cities in the countries' local languages when you pan over them. So for example, when you go over Japan, you'll see the name of towns in Japanese with English subtext. This is similar for European and ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/06/07/madaba-google-maps/ ... this will really brighten your day :-) (at least it did for me). The video picture quality is not good, but that is not important. Figaro ... Figaro ... Figaro ... :-D http://www.za3tar.net/2009/06/07/if-youre-in-the-mood/ This is indeed rediculous. Not only that, but i also hate it when services require you to sign up with a username & password even if you just want to try that service for a brief time. Too many user accounts online, ultimately you run out of memorizable unique passwords, ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/06/06/too-many-user-usernames-passwords/ At first she was cute and fun to hang around with. Then as i got to know her i realized that woman had only two modes: off and crazy. The latter was more prominent than the former. I have had enough. My problem is that i can't just switch off, ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/06/01/thoughts-at-324-am/ Let's rethink what a computer is. Computers are no longer those bulky devices under or on your desk. They are no longer those thin and slick laptops on your desk or lap. These have become merely interfaces to computers and computation power. Your new computer is somewhere off in the "cloud"; you ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/05/31/welcome-to-your-new-computer/ ... each of us is insignificant, but we are all important. -OR- ... we are all insignificant. http://www.za3tar.net/2009/05/25/in-the-grand-scheme-of-things/ .harvestList a { color: #2675E4; text-decoration: underline; } .harvestList a:hover { background-color: #2675E4; color: #fff; text-decoration: none; padding: 0.1em; } .arabic { font-size: 1.5em; } This is the last of my Blog About Palestine Day 2009 posts. This harvest post contains a sample list of more than 30 articles (in 4 languages) and ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/05/23/blog-about-palestine-day-2009-the-harvest/ There are many contemporary issues regarding Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict that one could talk about. However, today I would like to shed some light on an issue that is perhaps not as prominent in discussions as it should be. As we know, the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin in ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/05/15/rewriting-the-history-of-the-holy-land/ Tomorrow is Blog About Palestine Day 2009. The community response has been very refreshing so far. So many people have signed up both on the blog announcement and the Facebook Event. The event has been advertised and promoted on Qwaider's Planet and Toot. This is a true grassroots community effort ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/05/14/blog-about-palestine-day-reminder-topic-suggestions-and-list-of-participants/ إلى القرآء المحترمين، يَسُرني أن أدعوكم للمشاركة في يوم التدوين عن فلسطين 2009. هذه العودة الثانية لهذا الحدث بعد النجاح الباهر الذي حققه في إنطلاقته الأولى العام الماضي. فبمشاركتكم الطيبة تم كتابة أكثر من 70 تدوينة عن فلسطين بأربع لغات! وأنا على ثقة بأن مشاركتكم هذه المرة ستؤدي إلى نجاحٍ أبهر ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/05/04/%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%af%d9%88%d9%8a%d9%86-%d8%b9%d9%86-%d9%81%d9%84%d8%b3%d8%b7%d9%8a%d9%86-2009/ ***UPDATE #1:*** A Facebook event for this initiative has been created. Please join the event and pass the message on to your friends (more info here). ***UPDATE #2:*** Topic Suggestions and a preliminary list of participating bloggers has been published here. ***UPDATE #3:*** A sample harvest list of blog posts contributed to ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/21/blog-about-palestine-day-2/ .. and not a moment too soon. I am finally starting to see a few trees blooming. Vivid colors here and there. More moderate temperatures. And frisbees being thrown around. ... Ahhh i love spring! http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/21/spring-is-on-the-way/ You might have the truest message and the most noble cause in the world. But if you don't present it in an acceptable way to the rest of the world then nobody is going to accept what you are talking about. Worst still, it will most likely negatively affect the ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/20/know-how-to-deliver-your-message/ .. 3aj2aa and website clutter make my screen cry :-( http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/19/qwaider-please-dont-make-qp-too-cluttered/ Was out shopping (in a mall USA), passed by a sonoma shirt, pleasantly surprised to find the displayed sticker stating that it was made in Jordan :-) ... it's about time :-D (it is hard to read, but the printout on the shirt says "made in Jordan in the second line ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/19/sonoma-made-in-jordan/ ماذا سيحدث إذا أخذت مجموعة من الناس وبنيت لهم منازل إسكان ممتازة في منطقة نائية وليست ضمن مدينة مكتملة. وقدمت لهم هذه المنازل مجاناً بشرط أنهم لا يستطيعون أن يبيعوا تلك المنازل وعليهم أن يسكنوا فيها. بالتأكيد هؤلاء السكان سيحتاجون لخدمات تمكنهم من الحياة. سيحتاجون إلى خبز ومواد غذائية وإستهلاكية، ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/19/%d9%85%d8%af%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%aa%d9%86%d8%b9%d8%a9/ Is it just me, or do you sometimes feel like you just love your computer/operating system ? http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/19/do-you-love-your-computer/ Indeed. You don't need magic to do most of the things that you want to do. All you need is time (which is given to all) and a smart way to use it. Honestly, there are few people that i know that really use their time well, and they can ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/19/time-management-is-the-black-art-to-unlock-the-universe/ I don't get it. It is not a revolutionary technology, it is not a revolutionary concept, so why is there so much talk in the media about Twitter lately ? I understand YouTube's success, it made sharing videos genuinely easier. I understand the blogging boom, it allowed people to publish ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/18/why-in-the-world-is-there-so-much-talk-about-twitter/ For a while i haven't been having any (or any significant) dreams when i sleep. Maybe it is due to exhaustion or a temporary slump in creativity. But my night dreams are back again, and boy they are better than ever! Honestly, my last few dreams have been amazing; the view ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/04/13/dreams-again/ It was not total lights out in the major cities, but dimming/reducing lighting temporarily was at least helpful. Here are some pictures by the Discovery website here. http://www.za3tar.net/2009/03/31/pictures-from-earth-hour-2009-light-out/ I have encountered this annoying bug recently on my Linux box. I have a laptop with a widescreen monitor that gives me a 1440x900 desktop area (not much i know). I've noticed that with any desktop manager except for KDE3 i would encounter a problem whereby the screen would be ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/03/29/fixing-a-display-issue-in-opensuse-111/ I have come to the belief that i operate in a sinusoidal pattern of eagerness and laziness. I am now in my laziness period of this sine curve and boy does it suck. I hate the feeling of having to do something but not wanting to do anything. I hate ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/03/21/mental-recession/ I have to apologize for not submitting a post for the Blog About Jordan Day on time. The truth is that i have been extremely swamped for the past few weeks. In any regards, i think better late than never to submit. What follows is my post for BAJD which ... http://www.za3tar.net/2009/03/20/a-belated-bajd-post/