31 October, 2008

E-train



Ok, E-government, now I book all my train tickets via www.egypt.gov.eg it is working fine, the main drawback that I have to book 3 days in advance, come on. A day before is just the same, it is easy, efficient and spares me a long drive to ramsis station.

I always print the confirmation, though I don’t have to, but all train conductors carry a pen and like to tick the tickets (mmm tick the ticket have to google the origin) and don’t want to ruin decades of tradition.
Just like the big bell in the train station that no one ever use but all train stations don’t feel right without it.

And though using the latest technology in the train authority, still they had me flagged, no chicks khalessssssss.

Note to self, even if I sit with ms perfect, most probably will keep to my self and stay silent

Rain

I miss rain awi, when it rained in alex I was in cairo, and when it rained in cairo I was in alex.

I loved walking by the sea side before it rain, and watch gray clouds punch together and became thicker and heavier, I could almost feel the weight. Then it rains.

Every time it rains I feel it differently, rains with strong wind, rains with no wind, big drops, small tiny sprays, warm drop, hot drops.

But the thing I love the most how when the rain is finishing I see bright skies and white clouds in the horizon, this always gives me hope.

And when it is over, the smell of the weather, trees are greener and a friend once told me the receiver dishes are brighter.

I am a winter guy, though I started to hate the cold as I feel lonelier and miss Her more.

Ps. Want to buy a new blanket, know any stores in maadi, actually, if anyone who reads me lives in maadi, pls get in touch.

Pepsi man


For some unknown reasons I shifted from being a cola person to a Pepsi person.
Replaced cola with pepsi, sprite with 7up and fanta for mirinda.

If in a cola restaurant, I order juice. I don’t know why or when this shift happened, but it became a fact.
I preferred the more sugary, less steamy taste of pepsi to cola.

pepsi twist was really something special, miss gaveing it around

Think I better use my knowledge of consumer behavior to explain it, but yet have to finish the HR, Investment exams and a couple of late exams.

صديق البرنامج


It is back to radio for me, still no TV (nop no 37’ LCD with surround sound, not after the world financial crisis and Egyptian stocks lost 2/3 of its value)
I thought 100.6 was cool but cairo had a nice surprise for me the 1004.2 who broadcast mainly English music and songs round the hours and have a late night show that I became to love. I even txt them a lot and registered my nick name, who knows, may be soon I will be sadik el barnameg.

11 October, 2008

Hand writting

this is a picture of my handwriting, it is awful, childish, small and filled with spelling mistakes. This is why my typing is fast and my word processing skills are high.

My Oblivia

oblivia, it is a blog I have been following for quite sometime now, she talks about her divorce experience, how it is affecting her emotionally, her family support and the community point of view.

I keep and open eye in my readings for what made a love story turn so ugly. How a man she loved and aspired to turned to an incarnation of everything she hates in this life and the mere thought of him to make her sick.

I hate divorces, it ruins lives, but sometime it is the only answer for a sick situation, it takes two to tango, it takes two to make a marriage work and it takes two to make a marriage end.

I witnessed 4 divorces, in all 4 I thought there is yet a chance things would be back to normal, but no one was willing to walk the extra mile, all were exhausted, felt the sacrifice they gave were above and beyond the call of duty or any human being capacity. And thought it is the other side turn to walk the extra two miles. And it just ended. Their lives after the divorce isn’t the same, though extreme efforts to make it as civilized as possible but it always turn out messy for all the parties. And eventually the children are the ones who pay the full toll of it.

On the brighter side, on my way to the train station I passed by a hair dresser in Cleopatra who seemed is participating in the group wedding organized by sporting club, he has tens of brides just sitting outside his shop waiting to be picked up by the bus and for him to put his final touches.

A prayer goes for this man and all the couples getting married tonight, may they lead a happy life and may allah give them patience and endurance to continue through their sacred journey in this world.

Alex.

went to book my train ticked on Friday evening and thought why not to have a stroll like the good old days from sidi gabet home sweet home.

I took the tram ( I pronounce it toromay) for no apparent reason, some smart person decided to change the color of the leather seats from the famous red that had been around life forever to black or a very dark shade of green. I always assosciate alex with colors, pavments are yellow and black now gone, the tram seats red, taxis yellow and balck, now all gone except the taxi colors, and who knows.

A committee must be formed and supervised by the governor to try and capture the true essence of alex and preserve it and not allowing a bunch of biro crates dictate what is of sound taste and what isn’t, the great fiasco of suez canal tunnel still hurts my eyes.

Also and interesting change was moving the ladies car from the center to the beginning?????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! While in cairo moved it from the beginning to the center !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And to conclude the evening I took a walk along the korneish, and found new writings on the scatter rock along the coastal line. Urging young couples to be aware of the consequences of what they are doing and rethink it and yete2o rabena in what they are doing, found similar sites in cairo along kasr el nile bridge and nile kornish. The words seems to lose their meaning as it was business as usual for the couples.


And it started to get chili in the evening, cant wait for winter to come, I love alex winter and hate cairo’s winter. U have wind, rain and worm sun in alex while cairo just like a freezer, cold hitting the bone, hardly any rain and its winter is cold, don’t know how t explain it but 3’eles keda, alex cold is alive and beautiful.

I am not making any sense

09 October, 2008

Digital ethical questions,

Few months back while I was updating my address book I thought why not to add pictures of my friends to their contact details. Seemed cool at the moment but after some thought I decided not to. And started thinking, if someone grants me access to his/her profile on facebook, does it mean I am allowed to save their pics locally on my pc?
Shared the question with some friends, and was amazed with the answers.
Yes, sure, why not
Why didn’t I think of that before.
I keep my friends pics locally in case I need them later!!!!!!!
My pics are for sharing not for storing

What do u think?

Digital us-thoughts

Lots of us now is 010. digital images, address books, messages, e-mails and to top it Kaman little pieces of us scattered all over the cyberspace.

Issues like data security, integrity and privacy are now addressed to individuals, not companies and organizations as used to. A stolen mobile became a tragic loss, not because of its value, but the data it contains. People are willing to pay thousands to restore photos from a corrupted drive/CD/DVD. A compromised e-mail account or a social network account may ruin lives.

people may consider it impolite to open another person wardrobe, but perfectly ok to browse a mobile phone for messages, pics. A laptop for e-mails or folders on a flash drive.

What sparked all that was a lost mobile from a friend and another one who lost a portable hard disk

All the things I mentioned above needs to be addressed with responsibility rather than care. Responsibility cause our data doesn’t just involve us, but family and friends.

Backup ur data, now it is cheap and automated, external hard drives starts from 300 pounds with automatic back up options. DVDs can handle a 4 gigs of data but need to be checked for consistency.

Password protect important files, use strong passwords for laptop log in name, not just windows password, but more important BIOS password.

Revisit your passwords in general, make it longer and tougher to break, chk options of retrieving lost password from websites just in case and policies when a password in compromised.

Revisit your friend lists and chk the privileges they have to view your friends list, photo album and contact details.

Our digital traces last longer than we had ever expected and are harder to delete, a message posted to a group or a forum may last years to come and show up the wrong place at the wrong time, a golden rule of thumb, don’t write what u don’t say in public.


Be careful with flash drives, almost always are shared publically at colleges and work place. A copy can be make in a blink of an eye with a flick of a finger