Archive for October, 2006

Firefox 2.0 Relive the experience

// October 29th, 2006 // 3 Comments » // tech

Remember the first time you used Firefox? After years of having to deal with multi-windows. Now you can relive the experience by upgrading to Firefox 2.0.

After only 24 hours after Mozilla released Firefox 2.0 nearly 2 million downloads have been made. Which means about 23 downloads per second!! On the other hand Internet Explorer 7 was downloaded nearly 500 thousand times during the first 24 hours after Microsoft released it…
read more

Here are some of the new features of Firefox 2.0:
- I thought that tab browsing couldn’t get any better, but I was wrong. They added a few more features to it. One of the problems I had with the “old” Firefox was that whenever I filled my window with tabs I would have to open a new window to take more tabs. In the new version they added a button that allows you to see all see all the tabs you have open, even if the window can’t take them!

- Another cool feature they added is a spell checker better than any Firefox extension I’ve seen in the past (I’ve only tried a few). The new spell checker automatically underlines misspelled words as you type them in text areas.

There are a few other features, but these are the ones I liked most…

Eid… any ideas ?

// October 27th, 2006 // 5 Comments » // family, friends, me

First of all I would like to say Happy Eid and may allah accept our good deeds and forgive us for all the sins we have comitted.

This eid (like all the other eids before) was in Qassim with my relatives. The eid is always in qassim because my oldest relative lives there, even though most of my relatives live here in Riyadh.

Anyways, this is how our eid in qassim goes:
- we pray fajr on the day of eid.
- we go back home for dates (sunnah), and we have coffee.
- we go to pray eid prayer.
- we go to my uncle’s house and wait for my cousins and uncles to come back from eid prayer.
- we all go to my uncle’s mosque (he’s the imam of the mosque).
- at the mosque all the neighbors come and sit together.
- after about 30 minutes of this gathering, the food is brought to the mosque, each house brings a big plate of food. Then we start to eat, but you have to move on to other plates and taste their food.
- after that we go back home and sleep till aser prayer.
- after aser we go and visit a few relatives, and that finishes after isha prayer.
- we go to an “isteraha” were we gather with many of other relatives. Each year a different family hosts the dinner.

and that’s how we celebrate eid alfitar. Eid al-adha is about the same, but without the mosque gathering in the morning, because everyone is busy sacrificing their sheep.

I know it might seem fun and exciting, but I have been living the same eid routine for years. Kids are the ones that find eid to be really exciting. I’m not saying i’m bored, all i’m saying is that I don’t find myself all excited for eid, and it would be nice to have something new each year.

I was talking to a few of my friends and they also agreed that eid isn’t as fun as it used to be, and it’s because we are growing older. So, I started thing of ways to make eid more exciting.
- There is a nice way some people like to celebrate christmas. It’s called “secret santa”, and the way it works is that all the names of the people participating are put into a bowl, then each person draws a name from the bowl (if you get you name, then you have to put the paper back). Then, you will have to buy that person you got a gift, and give it to him or her on christmas. The same thing could be done in your family or friends for eid. The good thing about it is that you don’t have to buy so many gifts, which means you kind of save money and time. Another good thing about it is that there is someone working hard to give you the perfect gift for eid, because that person is only thinking about what to get you, so you’re more likely to get something you might actually like…

=========

UPDATE Oct. 28th:
A friend of mine asked me to ask a sheik whether celebrating eid the “secret santa” way is haram or not. So, I asked a shiek about it and he said that it depends whether “secret santa” is religiously linked to christmas. So, if it isn’t religiously linked to christmas then it’s halal…

وداعا رمضان

// October 21st, 2006 // 1 Comment » // uncategorized


نشيد لـ عبدالرحمن النقيثان (عرض على قناة المجد)
بلى رمضان ودعنا ..فهل نبقى على الحبِ ..!
لتحميل المقطع من منتدى المعالي اضغط هنا

.

عن ‏ ‏أبي هريرة ‏ ‏قال: ‏قال رسول الله ‏ ‏صلى الله عليه وسلم: ‏ ‏إذا كان أول ليلة من شهر رمضان ‏ ‏صفدت ‏ ‏الشياطين ‏ ‏ومردة ‏ ‏الجن وغلقت أبواب النار فلم يفتح منها باب وفتحت أبواب الجنة فلم يغلق منها باب ‏ ‏وينادي مناد يا ‏ ‏باغي ‏ ‏الخير أقبل ويا ‏ ‏باغي ‏ ‏الشر ‏ ‏أقصر ‏ ‏ولله عتقاء من النار وذلك كل ليلة

رواه الترمذي

اللهم لا تحرمنا فضلك بذنوبنا…

ramadan.cpp

// October 15th, 2006 // No Comments » // uncategorized


int main ()
{
while( month.hijry.date() == "ramadan")
{
if( day.hijry.date() == 29)
if( LookForMoon() == true )
{
setmonth.hijry.date("shawal"); //thanx sultan
cout < < "eid Mubarak" < < endl;
}
Fast();
EatBreakfast ();
PrayTaraweeh ();
PrayQiam ();
EatSahoor ();
}
return 0;
}

Nokia Aeon Concept

// October 11th, 2006 // 1 Comment » // tech

Nokia’s Research and development team published these images of their “Aeon” concept phone. The best design feature of aeon is a touchscreen that stretches over the full surface area of the phone. Do you think this concept will see the market anytime soon?

nokia’s R&D

Heliodisplay

// October 9th, 2006 // 1 Comment » // tech

I was talking today with one of my friends about Heliodisplay. So, I promised him I would write a post about them. A few years ago Heliodisplay seemed like a dream or somthing you would only see in a fictional movie, but today Heliodisplay is a reality…

“The Heliodisplay is an interactive planar display. Though the image it projects appears much like a hologram, its inventors claim that it doesn’t use holographic technology, though it does use rear projection (not lasers as originally reported) to project its image. It does not require any screen or substrate other than air to project its image, but it does eject a water based vapour curtain for the image to be projected upon. The curtain is produced using similar ultrasonic technology as used in foggers and comprises a number of columns of fog. This curtain is sandwiched between curtains of clean air to create an acceptable screen.

According to the inventor it moves through a dozen metal plates and then comes out again. (The exact details of its workings are unknown, pending patent applications.)

It works as a kind of floating touchscreen, making it possible to manipulate images projected in air with your fingers, and can be connected to a computer using a standard VGA connection. It can also connect with a TV or DVD by a standard RGB video cable. Though due to the turbulent nature of the curtain, not currently suitable as a workstation.

The Heliodisplay is an invention by Chad Dyner, who built it as a 5-inch prototype in his apartment before founding IO2 technologies to further develop the product.”
via [wikipedia]

Here is a video clip of the Heliodisplay in action (I like the part were the guy the watch with his fingers):


IO2 began Heliodisplay production about a year ago. I sent the company an email asking for Heliodisplay prices and this was their response:

Are prices are as follows, in USD:

Quantity Heliodisplay M2
1 $18,100
2 $29,000
3 $37,800

Quantity Heliodisplay M2i
1 $19,400
2 $31,600
3 $41,200

Head On

// October 8th, 2006 // 2 Comments » // Information

‘Head On‘ by Cai Guo-Qiang at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. The installation consists of 99 life-sized wolves, fabricated from painted sheepskins and stuffed with hay and metal wires, barreling in a continous stream towards – and into – a glass wall. Only the first ones crash into it, but the pack chases after the leader.

via [we make money not art]

Google Code search

// October 6th, 2006 // 7 Comments » // uncategorized

Google labs just launched their new code search page.

So, here are a few funny things I found. Most of them were comments, you can tell that the programmers were upset when writing some of these comments.

when I searched for no idea I got:
/* I have no idea why is this necessary... */
#if defined(_MSC_VER) && (defined(WIN32) || defined(_Windows) || \

// and ensure length is even
$length = 71 - strlen($spacer); // no idea why 71 but 75 didn't work
$length = floor($length/2) * 2;

else {
# We have no idea why we're here.
confess;

when I searched for Bill Gates I got:
int_fast16_t reserved1;
/* Ask Bill Gates what this is all about. */

SetROP2(dc, pen_mode[current->mode]);
if (current->linewidth % 2) /* Ask Bill Gates why we need this */
fudge = 0;

/* for character with code 152 of windows-1251 page (perl's decode fails for this code, ask Bill Gates for details */
YY_OUTPUT(htmlmodify_yytext);

bail ("too many -g hops");
if (gates == NULL) /* eat this, Billy-boy */

when I searched for I hate:
* that you can't have a 'forward' decl for enums.
* I hate C !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! */

#ifdef HAS_LIBGDGEDA
/* I hate to include an include inside an include (ha!) however, I don't */

when I searched for George Bush (geeks are into politics too?) :
{
// ignore anything we don't understand, like George W. Bush
}

* @package Mambo Open Source
* @Copyright (C) George Dubya Bush
* @ All rights reserved

dubya ;)

"Don't blame me, I never voted for anyone named George Bush",
};

when I searched for hates me:
catch(ex) {
debug("Can't get parent. xpconnect hates me so we can't get one from the appShellService.\n");
debug(ex "\n");

mc_def_ungetlocalcopy (vfs *vfs, char *filename, char *local, int has_changed)
{ /* Dijkstra probably hates me... But he should teach me how to do this nicely. */
int fdin = -1, fdout = -1, i;

I think Dijkstra hates me too, Ibrahim and I worked days on it (for our discrete math course)…

Here is a funny C code I found:
if (argc > 1 && strcmp(argv[1], "-advice") == 0) {
printf("Don't Panic!\n");
exit(42);
}

Let me know if you find anything interesting…

Coffee Art

// October 4th, 2006 // 2 Comments » // Information

This painting was literally painted with coffee!! The painter is Andrew Saur, and you can buy the original for 400 USD at just coffee art

For more coffee paintings click here

2007 Audi R8

// October 2nd, 2006 // No Comments » // tech

Audi has officially unveiled the 2007 R8 production model. This supercar will come equipped with a 414hp, V8 engine and all-wheel-drive. It uses the mid-engine Lamborghini Gallardo platform, and will sell for around $100,000!! features standard xenon headlamps surrounded by an LED cluster. Claimed 0 to 62 mph time is 4.6 seconds. Check out the video below:
[via leftlanenews]

I dedicate this post to a friend of mine who is a total Audi freak ;)