CIS Planet

Yesterday a main internet cable providing Egypt with internet sevice passing the Mediterranean   sea has been cut and I don't know how ,why and why untill now after more than 36 hours we still can't browse Google

I can't communicate with the external world even by an email

So I talked to the customer support of my ADSL provider and he told me that internal sites in Egypt are working 100% like http://www.masrawy.com/new/ , http://masrawy.yallakora.com/, that is nice. But what about Google it is to me like air and water

Only 25% of the users can access the internet 'External to Egypt' with 1% of its normal speed

Anyway I remembered that I has a email account with link.net @ http://wmail.link.net/, I never found any use for this account until this moment.

So I'm composing this email from http://wmail.link.net/ now.

I discovered that it is very useful to have a email provider established in your local country that you can use for emergency use

But it is the time for testing its performance

I composed a message @ 9:30 CLT to my yahoo, gmail, hotmail, gawab, link accounts and I found that the "to link" message reached at the moment and I didn't get any failure notifications from the other destinations and when the internet will be back I will know when the other destinations go the message

So what if I want to blog now , I can do with the blogger mail account mmmzeg.-----@blogger.com.

So I'm sending the message now and I can't browse the blogger to see is it reached or not?. it's now 9:45 CLT, 7:45 GMT let's see when it will reach

Many did ask me about the timing of Microsoft EDC (Egypt Developer Conference) - previously known as the MDC- , so I'm publishing it here
The EDC will be on 13-15 April in intercontinental City Stars, The Reservation is still closed but I'll put the link as soon as it's available in shaa Allah..

Graphics on Linux is almost exclusively implemented using the X windows system so you need to install X development packag using this command

The NetBeans IDE is a free, open-source Integrated Development Environment for software developers. You get all the tools you need to create professional desktop, enterprise, web and mobile applications, in Java, C/C++ and even Ruby. The IDE runs on many platforms including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris; it is easy to install and use straight out of the box.

For C/C++ support click this


To me until the Hello World! application is it totally suitable (Cute GUI, BreakPointing, Good Watcher) and the rest is coming.

Everyone of us has lots of things to do; organizing these stuff in a better way will sure help you get them done better and easier. People vary in their "task-keeping" scheme from ToDo Lists, Did-Do Lists, using applications as Microsoft Outlook, keeping data in their calendar or PDAs, or even plain text notes. GTD (Getting Things Done) is an easy, practical scheme to keep track of your tasks and actions.

Google Notebook is a perfect tool for processing your GTD lists. Why?

• Its contents are available from any computer where you're logged into your Google Account; which is a main advantage for using Notebook rather than any other GTD desktop applications as Thinking Rock and iGTD.
• It automatically includes links in notes (including individual Gmail messages).
• It can capture information anywhere on the web with a mature browser extension.
• It comes with Google's signature killer search capabilities.
• Using Notebook's collaboration features, you could allow your spouse or co-worker to drop things into your Inbox for you to process later.

Setting up your GTD Notebooks:

1. Log into Notebook with your Google Account.
2. Create five new notebooks: Inbox, Next Actions, Someday/Maybe, Projects and References. It would be better if you added "GTD." to each title as in "GTD.Inbox" for sorting purpose.
3. Add items to any section, or add section headers for known categories of your interenst, as "Work", "College", etc.

Walkthough:
Each notebook has a differenct function:

• Inbox: The entry point to you GTD List. Unprocessed thoughts get dropped off here for dealing with later. Pop-up thoughts, half-baked notions and "Oh! I should..." go here.
• Next Actions: This is your immediate, actionable to-do list, a few specific items you've decided to carry out in the next few days.
• Someday/Maybe: Here's where the things you might like to do someday - but you're not committed to right now - get shuttled.
• Projects: Big jobs that are made up of a collection of subtasks are not next actions, they're projects. For example, the "Clean out the office" job is made up of several next actions (ie, "Take out the garbage," "Rearrange the book shelves," "Purge filing cabinet.")
• Reference: Research into a topic that you'll need to carry out a next action or refer back to for a particular project goes here. For example, this is where you'd store links to the hotel, flight information and maps of a travel destination.

Get started ..

• Get FireFox Google Notebook Extenstion.
• Each day, review unprocessed items in your inbox and like a good GTD'er, decide whether to Do, Delegate or Defer it.
• To move an item from your Inbox notebook into its right place in the system, from the drop down menu on the far right side of it, choose "Move." From there you'll be able to choose another notebook and section, as pictured.
• Let others drop things into your Inbox: You can share your Inbox notebook with your spouse, boss, partner or co-worker virtually. To do so, click the "Sharing Options" link on the far right top side of the notebook. (Word of advice: just share your Inbox, not your Projects or Next Actions list. In theory the Inbox is the single entry point into your GTD system, so it's the only one others should access.)

* Reference: http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/getting-things-done-with-google-notebook-256844.php

Reading other persons has been a skill we all dreamt of. How many times did you ever feel you really wanted to know how other people think, act, or believe? It's known to be a skill, but some are far more skilled than others.
I don't know you, yet let's see how much I can tell about you ..

Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary and reserved. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept others' opinions without satisfactory proof. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety, and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. Disciplined and controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. People close to you have been taking advantage of you. Your basic honesty has been getting in your way. Many opportunities that you have had offered to you in the past have had to be surrendered because you refuse to take advantage of others. In fact, if you're not already in some sort of personal service business, you should be. You have an infinite capacity for understanding people's problems and you can sympathize with them.

Huh? I'm right, aren't I? Seems like I can see through you! No. These few sentences are known as Barnum Sentences, or having a Forer Effect, and that whole thing is called Cold Reading.

Forer Effect: Is when someone accepts some general or vague description of their personality as being unique to them, even though the exact same description would apply equally well (or equally badly) to everyone - also known as: Barnum Effect, personal validation effect, subjective validation effect.

In 1948, the psychologist Bertram R. Forer tried out an experiment with his undergraduate students. In his experiment, Forer gave a personality test to his students and then, without bothering to even read them, gave back a general personality analysis - the exact same one to each student, taken from a newspaper astrology column. He asked his students to rate his analysis and received an overwhelmingly positive response - his students were convinced that he could "read" their personalities. The same experiment has been performed repeatedly through the decades in a variety of contexts, and the responses continue to be highly positive.

Cold Reading: Is a set of techniques used by professional manipulators to get a subject to behave in a certain way or to think that the cold reader has some sort of special ability that allows him to "mysteriously" know things about the subject.

Cold reading goes beyond the usual tools of manipulation: suggestion and flattery. In cold reading, salespersons, hypnotists, advertising pros, faith healers, con men, and some therapists bank on their subject's inclination to find more meaning in a situation than there actually is. The desire to make sense out of experience can lead us to many wonderful discoveries, but it can also lead us to many follies. The manipulator knows that his mark will be inclined to try to make sense out of whatever he is told, no matter how farfetched or improbable. He knows, too, that people are generally self-centered, that we tend to have unrealistic views of ourselves, and that we will generally accept claims about ourselves that reflect not how we are or even how we really think we are but how we wish we were or think we should be. He also knows that for every several claims he makes about you that you reject as being inaccurate, he will make one that meets with your approval; and he knows that you are likely to remember the hits he makes and forget the misses.
Thus, a good manipulator can provide a reading of a total stranger, which will make the stranger feel that the manipulator possesses some special power. The above text was a compilation of sentences that belong to Bertram Forer and Sidney Omarr, who both have never met you, yet they offered the above cold reading of you.

We hear what we want ..
The selectivity of the human mind is always at work. We pick and choose what data we will remember and what we will give significance to. In part, we do so because of what we already believe or want to believe. In part, we do so in order to make sense out of what we are experiencing. We are not manipulated simply because we are gullible or suggestible, or just because the signs and symbols of the manipulator are vague or ambiguous. Even when the signs are clear and we are skeptical, we can still be manipulated. In fact, it may even be the case that particularly bright persons are more likely to be manipulated when the language is clear and they are thinking logically. To make the connections that the manipulator wants you to make, you must be thinking logically.

Further Reading:
http://www.skepdic.com/coldread.html
http://www.skepdic.com/forer.html
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/M/mindcontrol/behind/clairvoyance.html

If you are like me, you hate hand editing HTML and XML!  But unfortunately, as a .NET Developer you often find yourself doing it, and if for no other reason, you have to do it for parts of the Web.Config and Application.Config files. Last night, I was googling for something, and just found this tool from ASPhere by luck. It's really easy, nice, and looks great :)

Here you are the URL : http://asphere.aspweb.cz/default.aspx

It happens a lot when you really need to do some sort of 'advanced' search in Gmail. It's not always that a simple search does the job. How about some tips for using keywords that would make your life a lot easier?!

These are the keywords supported by Gmail search:

from: to: subject:

cc: bcc: filename:

label: after: before:

has: in: is:

Now, let's see each keyword:

• from: { email address | name }
  Use from to search for an email from a specific person, either by their email address or simply their name.
  ex: from: Alaa Shaker - from: alaashaker@gmail.com
  
  
• to: { email address | name }
  Use to to search for an email sent to a specific person, either by their email address or simply their name.
  
  
• subject: { text | "exact text" }
  Use subject to search for emails with subjects containing the specified text, or containing an exact match to the text between the double quotes (case insensitive).
  ex: subject:my blog - subject:"my Blog"
  
  
• cc: { email address }
  Use cc to find emails carbon copied to a specified recipient.
  ex: cc:alaashaker@gmail.com
  
  
• bcc: { email address }
  Use bcc to find emails blind carbon copied to a specified recipient.
  ex: bcc:alaashaker@gmail.com
  
  
• filename: { filename | extension }
  Use filename to find emails that have an attachment that matches the specified pattern, or simply provide an extension (.pdf, .doc, .bmp, etc.) to list all emails with attachments that belong to the same extension.
  ex: filename:mytextfile.txt - filename:pdf
  
  
• label: { label-name }
  Use label to search for emails under a certain label
  ex: label:newsletters
  
  
• after: { any known date format }
  Use after to search for emails sent or received after the specified date.
  ex: after:March 25 - after: 10/10/2007
  
  
• before: { any known date format }
  Use before to search for emails sent or received before the specified date.
  
  
• has:attachement
  Use has:attachement to search for emails with attachements.
  ex: has:attachement
  
  
• in: { mailbox-folder }
  Use in to find emails in any of the Gmail mailbox folders: Inbox, Chats, Drafts, Trash, or Spam, or use the keyword 'anywhere'.
  ex: in:chats
  
  
• is: { read | unread | sent | starred }
  Use is to find read, unread, sent or starred email messages.
  ex: is:unread

So, I can eventually do some complex search as:label:newsletters is:unread subject:coding horror after:1/1/2008bringing me all email messages sent after the 1st of Jan, 2008, containing the words 'coding' and 'horror' in their subject, and are labeled under "Newsletters".

Furthermore, you can use basic boolean operations, negation and grouping in your search. The only supported boolean operation is 'OR', as 'AND' is implicit. Use '-' for negation. Grouping is done using curved brackets'()'. as in:to:(sam mira) subject:(code OR executable) -label:projectswhich yields a search for all messages sent to Sam and Mira, with a subject containing the words 'code' or 'executable', and not labeled under "Projects".

Now, if you use FireFox, enjoy searching your Gmail using the default search toolbar after adding the Gmail search to it.

* References: http://girishk.com/2007/04/21/gmail-search-syntax/ and http://philwilson.org/blog/2004/12/search-your-gmail-in-firefox.html

At last, you can now debug the .NET Framework code, and can have a detailed look at the code, and not just the signatures :)
Previously, Scott Gu announced in his Blog that we will be able to see the Framework code, but no idea how; as it wasn't available to everyone.
Luckily, Shawn Burke finally gave us the exact route to the magic! in this post.
I advice you to read Scott Gu's post about this new feature

Happy Programming, and enjoy Microsoft's magic ;)

mmmzeg.anyname@blogger.com is an email address that I used it to submit any post to this blog

Blogger map the email title to the post title and the message body to post content

Many reasons make me use this facility now, some are in my mind now and others will be added later

1- GMail composer is lighter,simpler,stabler than blog poster
2- Make one message send to many blogs at the same time
3- Blog poster make the post creation date is the time where you start editing so although I publish a post today it may not be the first post in the blog home due to old draft date. So it is better to store the post in GMail as draft then send to publish
4- You can use this facility to automate the posting from other content eg; your homopage
I remember my friend S.H. aka "El-7aramy" in Arabic, aka "The Thief" in English
He used this service to publish our company content over WordPress blogger by making a web service and making a loop sending emails to many precreated blogs.
We as a company thought that this will allow search engines to crawl our content from bloggers and to be top ranked in the search results.
But the after 3xx loop iterations WordPress marked his IP as a spamer and they banned it :D

Some missed facilities in this method
1-The privew button
2-HTML layout
3-Embedding a video or flash object. "I don't know why till today we can't embed a video in an email message"

Some weakness
1- Any one know this email address can post at your blog even if he isn't an author of the blog "I tested it by sending a post from my yahoo account"

This weakness can be a strengthen from other point of view:
Suppose we made a public blog and in the hello world post we published its email address so that all the globe can post on this blog and in this case it will be the global blog

Really I thought in some idea near that:
Many times I got FWD: ---- emails I discard them due to unsuitable time but some people has the hobby to FWD them to trash our mail accounts
So what about making a FWD blog and publish its email address at its home so all people love FDWind post on it, and all people love FWDs check this blog and I think that this blog will gather a lot of Ads in this case

2- Tracing a blog author will be more harder as instead of tracing the request of a single page of posting, You need to trace all the mail providers send messages to the blog

That is all until now.

This post sent to blogger by Gmail

LOLCode is a programming language originated in May, 2007, with the aim of adding some fun to programming languages and making the learning process easier.

Take a look at the "Hello World" example in the image on the right. This is more likely to ouptut our usual "Hai World!" statement.
As you see, the program starts at HAI and ends with at KTHXBYE, and that, I guess, requires no explanation! The CAN HAS STDIO? resembles our traditional include or require lines for the standard input/output header file STDIO. To output the "Hai World!" message, the keyword VISIBLE is used, similar to print. BTW is used to signal a comment.

So far, the code looks nice and easy. Things get wilder if you go on with LOLCode. See this example:HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
 I HAS A var
 GIMMEH var
 VISIBLE "You said " N var N " !!"

 IZ var LESS THAN 10?
  YARLY
   BTW this is true, execute loop
   VISIBLE "BIG NUMBER!"
   IM IN YR LOOP
     UP var!!1
     VISIBLE var
     IZ var BIGGER THAN 10? KTHX
   IM OUTTA YR LOOP
  NOWAI
   BTW this is false, so do nothing
   VISIBLE "LITTLE NUMBER!"
 KTHX
KTHXBYEThe previous example starts by reading a number from the user using the GIMMEH variablephrase. The number is declared using the I HAS A variable statement. If the number is less than 10, it prints a message then enters a loop (do-while) that increments the number by 1 until it exceeds 10. If not, it just prints a message. A loop starts with IM IN YR LOOP and ends with IM OUTTA YR LOOP. The word KTHX is a block-closing keyword but it is used here as break if the IZ-statement - resembling the IF-statement - evaluates to true. The UP var!!1 statement is equivalent to var+=1 or var++ in C++. The rest of the code is self-explainable ..

You'd be amazed that LOLCode even has try/catch blocks as in the following PLZ-block:PLZ OPEN FILE "MYFILE.TXT"?
 AWSUM THX
  VISIBLE FILE
 O NOES
  INVISIBLE "ERROR!"
KTHXThe exception is handled in the O NOES block. The INVISIBLE keyword sends a inner message to the debugger. Moreover, the foreach loops are defined as:IM IN YR loop WATCHIN YR item IN bukkit-var
 ...
KTHXLOLCode is a pretty interesting and funny language. The syntax and keywords are created, enhanced, added-to and documented by its community through voting. Check out more details on their website or through their FaceBook Profile.

Livemocha! is a new web experience where you can learn, practice and share languages across an online community. Livemocha! brings to the web the first online language-learning community, where you enroll in language courses, take you lessons, score points, practice what you've learned, receive one-on-one instructions from language tutors and native speakers, connect to the community, make friends, and spread your language by tutoring other people or submitting lessons. I guess that's far much better than taking a course!!
They have levels for each language. Each level consists of units that in turn contain several lessons. Each lesson has six parts: Learn, Read, Listen, Magnet, Write, and Speak.

• Learn: First, you understand the lesson ..
• Read: .. then you practice on 'reading' what you've learned ..
• Listen: .. then you practice on 'hearing' it ..
• Magnet: .. after that you start hear the sentence in your language and build up sentences by picking words and putting them together.
• Write: Now, you should be able to solve a question by writing down the answer ..
• Speak: .. or by recording it!

A very interesting way to practice a language. Plus, you could drop by the website whenever you're free; your not stuck with course timings and that's the best thing about it! I enrolled in a French course and I decided to start from scratch even though I know fair French, just to give it a try. I really like it so far, it's worth trying!!

Now u have am work to do .. n u want the best u can do out of it .. n u go like "Boy, this thing's gotta be really creative .. !!" Here's what u should do ..

1. Define a clear purpose ..
   A simple, straightforward purpose like, “Let’s build a castle with these blocks” is all you need.
   
   
2. Identify a compelling motive ..
   The more compelling the motive, the more likely you are to summon high levels of creativity. Imagine that your inner creative resources are lazy, and they need a damned good reason to roll out of bed and go to work for you.
   
   
3. Architect a worthy challenge ..
   If a task is too easy, you don’t need to be particularly creative, so your creative self will simply say, “You can manage this one without me. Come back when you have something worthy of my attention.”
   
   
4. Provide a conducive environment ..
   You’ll find that certain environmental conditions make it easy for you to enter the flow state, while other conditions make it nearly impossible.
   
   
5. Allocate a committed block of time ..
   Imagine your mind is like a computer. The more you can take advantage of the computer’s resources, the more creativity you harness. To free up the most resources for your creative task, you first need to unload all nonessential processes.
   It normally takes me about 15 minutes to begin to enter the flow state, and I’m solidly entranced after about 45-60 minutes. By the end of the first hour, I’m just getting into the task. My real creative output happens in hours 2, 3, 4, and beyond.
   
   
6. Prevent interruptions and distractions ..
   If you can’t keep yourself from being disturbed by urgent phone calls, emails, or drop-in visitors, you won’t consistently achieve and maintain the flow state. You must do whatever it takes to prevent unnecessary interruptions during your creative periods. If you work for someone who expects you to produce creative work but makes it impossible for you to tune out interruptions, fire your boss.
   
   
7. Master your tools ..
   When you’re in the flow state, you won’t be worrying about where your fingers need to be, what buttons you need to click, or what words you need to type. After your creative flow state churns out your first draft, you’re always free to go back and edit it later.

Get the creative, right-brain part done first. Then go back and do a logical, left-brain pass to make refinements and correct any problems.

Entering and maintaining the highly creative flow state is a skill, not a blessing, an accident, or a fluke. By habitualizing the rules above and adapting them to your situation, you can experience the flow state as a regular, perhaps even daily, occurrence. And once you learn to harness the power of flow, your creative output will soar.

-- Original article by Steve Pavlina (personal development).

PS: Thx Kasparov for the link ..

For all Gmail lovers, to make Gmail your Windows default email client, here's what u have to do

• Open Start Menu > Run (or press Win+R)
• Type "regedit" (without the double quotes!)
• Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail"
• Right-click on "Mail" and add new Key. Call it "Gmail"
• Construct the following hierarchy by right-clicking and adding keys. Then give the corresponding values on the right by double-clicking the "default" item and changing its value, or right-clicking anywhere and adding a new item with the type described between brackets ..
  
  
• Gmail --- Default = Gmail
  • DefaultIcon --- Default = "c:\\Program Files\\Google\\Google Talk\\googletalk.exe",5
  • Protocols --- Default = URL:MailTo Protocol | EditFlags (REG_BINARY) = 02 00 00 00 | URL Protocol (REG_SZ) = <leave empty>
    • DefaultIcon --- Default = "c:\\Program Files\\Google\\Google Talk\\googletalk.exe",5
    • shell
      
      • open
        
        • command --- Default = rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler http://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1&to=&su=
  • shell
    
    • open --- Default = Gmail
      • command
  
  

In "DefaultIcon", you can change the path to any other icon you'd like, just don't forget to write the path with two backslashes. Also, you can also bookmark this link to directly compose a new mail in your web browser.

xvidcap is a screen capture enabling you to capture videos off your desktop on Linux(Ubuntu) for illustration or documentation purposes.

You can find similar post here for similar tool on Window O/S

post sent automatically using GMail

Translation: I'm cheating here!

I do know some French, but that doesn't make me a translator.
Guess what, u don't need one anymore ..

Google brings you their new "Translator Bots" .. !!
All you need to do is add <en2fr@bot.talk.google.com>. This will add a new contact to your GoogleTalk contact list (I suggest renaming it to smthing reasonable like "English-to-French"). Then just send a message in English to the bot, and it will send u back the French translation .. et voila!

Google Translator Bots* supports other languages as well. Add any contact with the format <[from language]2[to language] @bot.talk.google.com>, and the supported language pairs are: ar2en, de2en, de2fr, el2en, en2ar, en2de, en2el, en2es, en2fr, en2it, en2ja, en2ko, en2nl, en2ru, en2zh, es2en, fr2de, fr2en, it2en, ja2en, ko2en, nl2en, ru2en, and zh2en. They are name using the two-letter language abbreviations code.

The bots use GoogleTranslate as their back end, meaning that quite a few languages in rough beta, so this tool should mainly be used for casual or on-point word or line translations. Yet, it's still awesome!

* Bots: also known as web-robots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the internet; such as acting as a chat contact.

Really I don't know the sponsors of this site