Just a Blog

Programmers' Advent Calendar: #3 How to find a program's executable (C/C++)

2011-12-04T06:22:00.001+02:00

Say you are writing a C/C++ program and from within that program you need to find the path of the exe file. Under *nix systems. Get the pid, "int pid = getpid();" then simply the file "/proc/pid/exe" is a link to the executable. From there you can do whatever you want. You can also find a bunch of other information about your process in the "/proc/pid/" directory.Come back for more tomorrow :).

Programmers' Advent Calendar: #2 Back references with regular expressions

2011-12-04T05:15:00.001+02:00

I am a little late writing my advent calendar posts, but I will try to keep up. For this episode, let me tell you about a really useful feature that's available in most search/replace tools (e.g. sed, ruby regular expressions ...).

Imagine this scenario: I am writing a novel whose main character and her sister are called "Sarah" and "Judy" "Williams". There are other characters called "Sarah" and "Judy" however those have other last names. There are also other characters whose last name is "Williams" but with different first names. I always refer to my characters as "FirstName LastName" in my novel.

Now, my editor and I decided that we will change the sisters names to "Sarah" and "Judy" "Brians". And it's a disaster, because now I have to go and change the names by hand. I cannot replace "Sarah ***" or "Judy ***" by "Sarah Brians" and "Judy Brians" because I will them mess up the other names. I can't also just replace "Williams" by "Brians" because I will again mess up the other names. What do I do?One solution would be replace "Sarah Williams" by "Sarah Brians" then again replace "Judy Williams" by "Judy Brians". However, what if there were 20 characters from the same family? Back references solve this problem.

Back references simply select a part of the search term and save it, then I can use this same part in the replace pattern. It is very useful whenever the change location is identified by something that is bigger than the changed part. In this example, I would replace "$Sarah|Judy$ Williams" by "\1 Brians". \1 will refer back to whatever was between "$" and "$". If you had more pairs of "$" and "$" then you can refer back to them using "\2" , "\3" ... in the order they were defined.Come back tomorrow for another little useful piece of information. :).

Programmers' Advent Calendar: #1 Finding a path to a bash script

2011-12-03T22:01:00.001+02:00

I have decided to start this series, for the 24 days of christmas, I will dedicate a post each day to tell you about a little thing you might not have known. I will try to stick to small examples or one liners most of them time. However, some biggers stuff will be too good to miss. This is the first post of the Series.

Often enough, you are writing a bash script and you want to find out where is your script. Here is a reliable and repeatable way to find the directory where your path resides.

DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"

However, if your script changes directories before calling this, it will get the wrong value.Now let me explain how the script works. BASH_SOURCE[0] will return the relative path of the script from the directory where the script was called. dirname will remove the script name from that. Which at the beginning of the script is the same as pwd. If we go to that directory then we are at the same dir as the script. Executing pwd there will give us the absolute path. And this is what we store in DIR.

Come back tomorrow for another post :).

Linux Commands for Beginners

2011-11-07T00:34:00.005+02:00

We had organized a talk for the Infotech Student Organization to introduce the students to Linux command line. It was often the case that a student was put in front of a Linux box and was asked to do 'X' research while he had no idea why there was no 'Start' button in the bottom left corner.

A few weeks ago, in a similar situation at UBC, I have seen a student open nautilus as root, navigate to /usr/bin and drag/drop files there. It was an aweful sight.

Back to the talk for Infotech, I was asked to give the actual talk with some demonstrations and examples to the people. I created a tutorial which contains what I believe is the fastest way to get a person started on a bash terminal. It might not be the most conceptually accurate, but it's guaranteed to get your started, _fast_. It is necessary that you read the tutorial in sequence, because I have organized it so that there is not a thing that I will use before explaining first. It will save you a lot of headache.

So let's start:

Command line arguments
when you want to execute a program on a linux terminal, you type the name of the program and press “Enter” or “Return”. Sometimes the programs needs input, for example, a program that prints the date could need an input specifying how would you like the date to be formatted. We will see an example on that later. To give a program input on the terminal, you type the name of the program, then space then the first input then space then the second and so on. it would look like this “ls -l -a -h”, we will see what this does later on.

ls
ls stand for “list” it is use to list all the files and directories in the current directory. ls can have my options. check “man” for details (I will show you how to do that in a few minutes).

Repeating a previous command
on a linux terminal, there is something called “history”, this basically means that the terminal saves the history of previously executed commands. You can access this history in the simplest way by hitting the “up arrow” button, each time you hit it it will go one command further in the past.

ctrl+c
ctrl+c means pressing the control (ctrl) key first, then while holding it down, pressing the “c” key. It is using to interrupt the previously entered command or delete the command currently being typed entierly.

man
man is an interface that is use to read the manuals of programs. Most programs have those manuals correctly setup on your system just type “man command” to see the manual. The manual will open in a “less” window. Check below for further details. If the man of a program doesn’t exist, it’s a convention to try “command --help”, most of the programs will have this print a short description of the program as well as all the options that can be used with it. Try “man ls” and “ls --help”. You can scroll inside the manpage with “arrow up” and “arrow down” or “page up” and “page down” keys. More options are on the way when we discuss “less”.

cd
cd stands for “change directory” it is used to change to a directory. it takes one argument which is either a relative path or an absolute path to a directory. Like this “cd /home/linux/linuxtut” or if you are in /home/linux then “cd linuxtut”. If you call “cd” only without any arguments, it takes you to your home directory. The home directory is specified in the environment varialble “$HOME”. More about that later.

pwd
pwd prints out on the command line the current working directory, if you get lost and don’t know where you are, just type “pwd” and it will tell you the full/absolute path to the directory you are currently in.
Remember, you can always type “man command” to know how the command should be used.

mkdir and mkdirhier (mkdir -p)
mkdir is used to create a new directory. it takes one argument, either the relative of absolute path of the directory you want to create. if you want to create dir1 inside dir2 and dir2 doesn’t exist, mkdir will fail. you can use “mkdir -p” or “mkdirhier”(not available on all systems) to create both dir2 and dir1. It will create even the whole hierarchy of directories if more than 2 exist.

cp and cp -r
cp is used to copy a file, enter “cp original copy” both original and copy are the relative or absolute paths to the files. You can also enter “cp original dir” and the file original will be copied with the same filename into “dir”.
cp -r is used to copy a complete directory. r stands for “recursive”. type “cp -r originaldir copydir” also using absolute or relative paths.

rm and rm -r
rm is used to delete a file, it stands for “remove”. “rm file” will remove “file”. to remove a directory and all the files inside it, you can use “rm -r dir”. “rm -r file” will also work. r also stands for recursive. Use rm -r only with caution as it can delete a huge amount of files/directories in a single command.

rmdir
if you want to remove a directory, rmdir can be used, but rmdir will work only if you have removed all files and directories from inside the directory you want to delete.
you can make rmdir behave like rm -r if you say “rmdir --ignore-fail-on-non-empty dirname”.

mv (rename)
in linux, we don’t have a “rename” option since renaming something is like “moving” it. mv stands for “move” and it takes two arguments “mv original target”, original and target can be absolute or relative paths to a file or a directory.

cat
now we start with file viewing and manipulation commands. cat stands for “concatenate” . It takes one argument “cat file” and it will print that file to the output of the command line allowing you to see the contents of the file. We use cat to view the contents of small files.

more
more is a program that allows you to view a large file and scroll through it. Otherwise it would be very large to “cat” on the terminal. With more, you get one page of the file, and when you press “space” the next page is displayed. You cannot go back in more.

less
less is a name given to the program that is opposite to “more” because it does the opposite to what more does. You can remember which to use by this anecdote “less is more than more”. Because less allows you to scroll both up and down as well as search the file. It’s used like this “less file”.

head
head is used like cat but it only concatenates the start of the file. It will print the first 10 lines of a file when used like this “head file”. you can change this by using “head -n x file” it will print x lines from the start of the file.

tail
tail will do the same as head, but to the end of the file. you can use the same -n option.

grep
grep is a very powerful command that allows you to search a file for some pattern and it would print out the lines containing that pattern. For example, you had a .c file and wanted to see if a specific variable is used in it you can use “grep pattern file” and grep will print all the lines containing your pattern. the -i option tells grep to “ignore case”. the -r tells grep that you will specify a directory instead of a file and that grep should search this directory recursively. the -n option tells grep to output the line number for the output lines.

echo
echo is used as follows “echo string” it will simply repeat that string for you. so the output of “echo Hello” is “Hello”. But echo is particularly helpful when you want to see the values of environment variables, you can use it as follows “echo $VARIABLE” and it would output the value of that variable.

chmod
When you "ls -l" you get some crazy symbols on the left similar to "drwxr-xr-x". These represent the file permissions. Here is how they work.
You have 10 letters: "0123456789"
0 will be 'd' if it's a directory and '-' otherwise
123, 456, 789 correspond to the rights for "owner", "group" (owner's group), "every body else"
so, 1,4,7 are for the "read" right
2,5,8 are for the "write" right
3,6,9 are for the "execute" right
If you have the right, there will be an 'r', 'w', or 'x' respectively, otherwise a '-'
The command to change those is chmod. To change something, you must have a "write" right, or be a root.
chmod works in 2 ways:
Either write "chmod xxx file" where x is a single octadecimal digit corresponding to the rights you give to each group, where the 1st x is for the 1st group and so on.
As a side note, here is a table for octadecimal transformation into binary:

0 -> 000
1 -> 001
2 -> 010
3 -> 011
4 -> 100
5 -> 101
6 -> 110
7 -> 111

so, now map the 3 binary digits to "rwx" and you get your rights for one group. For example, 5, which is 101, represents r-x rights.
the other way to use chmod is to do use some letters

'u' = user (owner)
'g' = group
'o' = others
'a' = all (the 3 permissions)
'r' = read
'w' = right
'x' = execute
'-' = remove
'+' = add

and you write it such as "chmod [a|u|g|o] [+|-] [r|w|x]". What this means in english is, write chmod, then write any combination of "augo" then write '+' or '-' then write any combination of "rwx". So u+x will give the owner execute right and og-rw will remove the read and write from others and group.
Take care because sometimes a-r or a-w or u-r or u-w can be dangerous if you don't have root access. There are a lot of other options, consult the chmod manual (man chmod) for the full details.

chown (user:group)
chown is use to change the owner of a file. "chown new_owner:new_group file". Don't forget to check "man chown".

pidof
pidof stands for “process id of”. It searches in all the running processes and returns the id of the matching ones. it takes one argument “pidof process-name”

kill
kill is used to kill a process. I takes 1 argument, the pid of the processor. it is often used in combination with pidof in this way “kill `pidof process-name`” those are not ‘ single quotes. see below for more about that.

``
those characters are called “back tick” they are enters by hitting the key right below ESC on a US english keyboard. They are used to tell bash to execute the command between them first then put its output in this place then execute the other command. they can be used like this “kill `pidof process-name`” and this would be exactly equal to “kill process-id” if you know the process id.

|
we call this the “pipe” character. it’s on your keyboard usually at Shift-\. The pipe does exactly what it sounds like, it pipes the standard output from the command before it to the standard input of the command after it. We usually use | to search in the output of a command for example like this “lspci | grep -i “audio”. lspci lists all the pci devices connected to your computer and its output goes to the input of grep. grep searches the input for the word “audio” and the -i tells grep to do a case insensitive search.

>, >> and <
both of those characters are called redirection characters. We will not go into much details about them. In their simplest use, we use them to direction an output of a command to a file. this way “pwd > file” for example. > will create the file if it doesn’t exist or overwrite it if it exists. >> is used in exactly the same way except if the file exists it will append to it instead of overwrite it.
< is used to direct a file to the standard input of a program. It is not very often used because most software that needs a file as input will have the option of taking the filename and reading the file itself. but you can try it with grep “grep -i pattern < file”

date
date is used to output the current date. it can also be used to format a date in the format you would like. read the man page

cal
cal will ouput the calendar.

uptime
uptime outputs mainly how long has it been since the system was started. check the man page to know the meaning of the other things.

vim and nano
vim and nano are terminal based text editors. If you need to edit a file, try "nano file" this will open that file in a terminal based text editor called nano (notice that file is a command line argument to nano). You can navigate nano using the arrow keys. Some help is displayed in the bar at the bottom. For example, ctrl+x will exit nano.

wget
wget is a command that fetches/downloads a file from the internet using different protocols.

My position regarding events in Egypt

2011-02-02T01:13:00.001+02:00

1. Mubarak's reaction to the protests should have happened BEFORE the protests took place. A true patriotic president would have pushed for the protesters' demands on his own, without any protests since those are basic human rights and steps towards real democracy. Mubarak had thirty years to work towards those goals and he seemed to totally ignore them and work for an unpublished agenda. For this reason, this guy CANNOT be the Egyptian president for one day longer. The only thing keeping him in power was his power, this was clearly destroyed in the protests.

2. Mubarak's reaction during the protests were reactions of a man who is clinging with all he has to his chair. Starting from trying to control the protests through riot police, the meaningless speeches, the slow reactions to the people's demands, ignoring the people demanding him to step down, the military showdown over Tahrir Sq. among many other things.

3. Appointing a vice president and allowing opposition parties to be heard and represented in the presidential elections is a normal thing that should have been done around thirty years ago. Plot Mubarak's actions on a graph and you will immediately see the patterns emerge. He never does something for the good of the people unless he absolutely has to.

4. The opposition groups were utterly stupid during the protests. I, a total political ignorant, predicted that Mubarak announcing that he will not run for the upcoming elections in a few months will result in a lot of unrest for the protesters although this is one of the best scenarios to support a transition of the power without chaos taking over the country. The opposition leaders should have made a formal proposal as follows:

- Mubarak does not run for any further elections, neither will his son.

- Amendments of the constitution that guarantee of presence of a number of diverse candidates.

- Further amendments that guarantee the supervision from the international community of the elections and that guarantee free and fair elections.

- Even further amendments to limit the number of successive presidential terms to only two.

- Mubarak does not pursue his presidential roles until the elections and all roles be transfered to the vice president Omar Sulaiman.

- Change of the governoment.

- Undoing all actions of media and internet censorship immediately

Then push Mubarak to give in for this proposal. Had this happened, everybody would be on his way home happy by now.

5. The Egyptian media and the Egyptian state TV were completely unprofessional during the protests. Coverage of the events were almost always either making false claims or massively under-reporting what is happening. The Egyptian media seemed to be totally driven by politics. This further supports other evidence, like internet censorship, that Mubarak is still, as always, ready to do whatever he can to stay in power. So far, there has been no indicators that he will discontinue this behaviour.

6. The will of the people is the utter most important thing in the whole matter. If the people say that the president goes, then he immediately goes. It is the people's country and if the majority chooses to destroy it, then it is their complete right. Most of Egyptians, and especially Mubarak, seem not to understand this at all. By the way, this is called "Democracy".

Conclusion, I am still not happy about the current state. Mubarak must stop all presidential roles immediately as he cannot be trusted to be in power any further. It might be acceptable for him to just fill the chair for this transitional period until the upcoming elections in 8 months.

عباس بن فرناس never broke his neck !!!

2010-09-10T01:14:00.002+03:00

It's true, Abbas 'bn Fernas never broke his neck, in fact, his flight attempt is considered succesful. Abbas 'bn Fernas actually _settled in the air and flew untill he fell a long distance away_ as described by 'bn Hayyan. 'bn Fernas was a scientist and he did _not_ do a stupid thing. He did a successful flying attempt based on scientific calculations and observation of birds, which proved correct. It is said that 'bn Fernas failed to land correctly, which should be done by flaring his wings as commonly practiced in hang gliders, and hurt his back (some sources said that he only broke a rib). Abbas 'bn Fernas' flight was the first flight attempted by a human in the documented history.

Basbousa Recipe

2010-09-06T16:04:00.007+02:00

After so much time researching and trying. And with the help of Ahmed Garamoun, we finally came to the perfect recipe for the very much loved oriental sweet "Basbousa"

Revised recipe, written on 6th of september 2010

Dough:
1/2 kg of "de2i2 semid" or griess in german (weichweizen)
300 gm of sugar
300 ml of water
around 100 gm of molten butter
1.5 tsp active dry yeast

Syrup:
500 ml (2 cups) of sugar
375 ml (1.5 cups) of water
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Ustensils:
Mixing bowl
30 cm lightly greased pan for baking

Mix all dough dry ingredients, then add the butter then the water while mixing till a loose paste forms. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Put in a 180 degrees oven for around 50 minutes (until golden red/brown)

Once you put the dough in the oven, add the water to the sugar to make the syrup, bring to a boil, after all sugar is dissolved add the lemon juice and set aside to cool.

Once the dough is out of the oven, sprinkle the syrup on top lightly (no pouring) until all the syrup is on the dough (dough could take a little time till the syrup is absorbed)

Cover (with aluminum foil) and let it cool to room temperature then cut and serve.

Almonds or other nuts could be sprinkled on top of the dough before baking, press them lightly inside the dough after sprinkling.
about 1/2 cup of coconut could be added to the dough.

Let me know your feedback

Assault on Entebbe

2010-09-06T15:35:00.002+02:00

Please watch the videos here

This is what nations do for their people... I feel shame for my nation.

Alcohol content in bread

2010-09-06T12:10:00.003+02:00

I want to broadcast this message, because many people don't really realize it.

There is an organizm called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Or what we know as "Yeast". When yeast is alive, it eats sugar and roduces water, alcohol and CO2. There is no way to avoid that. The same yeast that is used for brewing alcoholic beverages is used for baking, which means, the same process that produces water, alcohol and CO2 happens in each and every loaf of bread. A study has been done to analyze the alcohol contents of bread, it has been found that a normal loaf of bread, bought from the bakery contains between 0.04% to 1.9% alcohol. 1.9% is a really close number to normal light beer, and I believe is by far superior to most baked food whose labels include alcohol among the ingredients. I would thus conclude, I don't think it's correct to have an alcohol phobia in the sense that many people do, because you already get your dose of alcohol each and every day. I see a more rational way to think about it, how much alcohol starts to get me drunk. And thus, drinking an alcoholic beverage, or eating something that contains alcohol in the ingredients is totally okay, because _bread_ is one of those things. You just need to watch for the amount of alcohol you are consuming. Based on personal experience, an average adult man would start feeling he drank alcohol after consuming around 1.5 liters of light beer (2.5%) or 500-750 ml of normal beer (5%). For non alcoholics, I am not inviting you to be drunk all the time, I am not encouraging you to drivink alcoholic beverages, I am just calling for you to think about your alcohol phobia. Alcohol is not that scary, in fact, you drink some every day !!

References: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1709087/pdf/canmedaj00470-0140b.pdf (The section about Alcohol content in bread)

Discussion - Am7aya f forn afrangy

2010-09-05T20:23:00.003+02:00

(This post is related to

Am7aya fi forn afrangy -- A book by Christine Amir -- قمحاية في فرن أفرنجي )

Well, finally I got the book, at least for a few weeks to read it. (Thanks to Youstina Daoud for that)
Me, having lived 30 months so far away from home, I have lived most of the experiences Christine is talking about in the book, only more intense. I'm astonished of how similar was the way I reacted/coped with things to the way she did. I would like to comment/discuss some part of the book that has been a great controversey for me. It's chapter 10 "Masr Tel3et Menhom".

Masr, eh heya masr?? masr, ana etwaladt henak, w law kan el e5tyar f idi makontesh e5tart dah. 3esht awel 20 sana men 3omri henak, w bardo law kan 3andi el e5tyar makontesh e5tart dah. As7aby w ahli wel nas el ba7ebohom henak, dih yemken el 7egga el wa7ida el sa7, bas lazem a2oul enno ana ma2adetsh kol el wa2t dah ma3 nas tany 3lshan a3raf hal el nas el 3ereftohom f masr dol mo5talefin walla dah el tabi3i. W mesh ma3na enno 3agebni el nas el f masr enno lazem a3od f masr, fi mogtama3at masreya _nedifa_ f 7ettat tanya ktir.... ana moshkelti ma3 masr mesh mawke3ha el go3'rafy wala el 7okouma wala el gaww wala el nadafa wala ay 7aga men el 7agat dih. ana moshkelti ma3 masr el masreyiin, el masreyiin lesabab 3'er ma3loun fakado el e7teram bekol ma3anih. y3ni tela2i wa7ed afel 3alek fel rakna w tale3 bethom yenam w howa 3aref kwayes awi enno 3arabitak dih mesh men el 7etta w shwaya sa7ebha hayob2a 3ayez yemshi. howa nafseyan mestaraya7 tamaman w byetla3 beitoh yenam w yesha5ar. ana ba2oul fakado el e7teram 3lshan bel tasarof dah, walaw enno momken nas ketir te2oul 3ady mesh moshkela kebira, 3lshan el ragel 7atta law mesh ased bekol salasah karrar enno ana wa7ed a2all menno w enno howa momken yenam f bethom w ana 3ammal adawar 3aleh 3lshan yetalla3 3arabito. ana 3aref enno a3'labeyet el nas mesh waselohom el mawdou3 dah kwayes, bas lamma teshoufh el nas el f almanya (ana a3ed f almanya) byetsarafo ezay hatefham, mesh hatefham ana 7asses b eh w bafakar b eh ella lama te3ish f west sha3b mo7taram. tabba2 ba2a el masal dah 3ala kol el bani2admin, 3al mwazaf fel morour, 3al bayya3, 3al zabet, 3ala kol ahl masr. el nas fakadet e7teramhom w ta2derhom lel nas el tanya. ana law mo7taram, mesh ha3od ma3 el nas dih, belzat law 3andi el forsa arou7 7etta tany. Harou7 a3ish barra, mesh ba2oul hansa as7abi w hansa zekrayati, ana hagy saye7 (zay el walad el sha3ro tawil el Christine etkalemet 3aleh fel ketab), hagy _mo7taram_ hanbeset, w atfassa7 w arou7 el ahramat w sharm el sheikh w arawa7 betna.
fi mawdou3 tany Christine betetkallem 3aleh f chapter 11. Ana 3ayez awasal resalah, e7sas enni fel beit. Enno el 7etta dih beta3ti, enni a5bat el 3arabeya w awel mad5ol el beit ab2a mettamen, fi ra2yii, law 7ad 3ash barra masr aw barra beito lefatra tawila men el wa2t (1,2 years..) el e7sas dah ra7, w 3'aleban mesh hayerga3 tany, w belzat lel welad. hayiigi makano e7sas tany.. e7sas enno ana lazem atsarraf, e7sas enno law kassart 7aga hatedfa3 tamanha, law 3ayez teshteri 7aga lazem twafarlaha, law 3ayez takol lazem totbo5, law 3ayez telbes lazem te3'sel.... hayiigi makano e7sas _el mas2ouleya_. e7sas esteklaleyah, e7sas enno ana mesh me7tag 7atta baladi wala beity 3lashan mamotsh. dah mostawa aa5ar men el e3temad 3ala el nafs. el e7sas dah sa3b awi fel awel, hat7ess enno malaksh sanad, mafish 7ad yenfa3 a3ayatlo w a2ollo ta3ala el7a2ny. w a7san bektiir enno el kalam dah et3amal fina delwa2ty, 3lshan keda keda lama hanetgawez hayet3emel fina, fakkaro fiha enno dah _demo version_, nos5a tagribeyah, mabtedfa3sh fiha flous. 3lshan ba3d keda mayenfa3sh yob2a fi tagarob. ana basta3'rab men el ahali el bet2affel 3ala wladhom (5osousan el banat) w mota5ayelin enno keda homma beysa3do. keda homma beyzawedo el ta3'ayor el haye7sal lama wladhom hayob2o modtarrin 3'asb 3anhom yetsarafo.

Wild camping in Switzerland

2010-08-16T16:24:00.004+02:00

There are a lot of rumors online about whether wild camping in Switzerland is allowed or not yet no definitive answer.
Last week I was in Switzerland, we couldn't get to the camping site before it closed. So, we drove on a small country road till we found a suitable place, we parked the car a little bit inside the woods by the roadside and we deployed our tent right next to the car. We were not bothered by anyone during the night. The next morning while we were preparing to leave, the forest rangers came, they parked right behind us and asked whether we spend the night there. We said yes, the guy asked if we threw any garbage. We said no, the guy said "Have a nice day" and left. I guess this confirms beyond no doubt that wild camping in Switzerland is competely legal if not even welcomed. We camped the next day in Zurich. We deployed the tent along with 13 other wild campers' tents on a flat freshly mowed place. We spend a peaceful night till the morning.

هشام الجخ - جحا

2010-08-16T12:54:00.001+02:00

Really amazing poetry about Egypt. If someone doesn't understand Arabic and/or the Egyptian dialect, please add a comment below, I will try to provide translation.

Men's rules

2010-08-16T11:33:00.003+02:00

Men have gathered and discussed a great deal and finally came up with a set of rules that should be followed around them. Girls, please, this is a really serious things, most of those rules should be stricktly followed when you are around men, the rest of them are really good guidelines on how to behave. This is no joke, those rules are really meaningful since not following them is guaranteed to get on a man's nerves.

Andrew Boktor

These are our rules:

Please note... these are all numbered "1" ON PURPOSE!

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one:

* Subtle hints do not work!
* Strong hints do not work!
* Obvious hints do not work!
* JUST SAY IT!

1. 'Yes' and 'No' are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done

Not both
* If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials

1. Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we

1. ALL men see in only 16 colours, like Windows default settings.

Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a colour. Pumpkin is also a fruit.
* We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, expect an answer you don't want to hear

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine, Really

1. You have enough clothes

1. You have too many shoes

1. I am in shape. Round is a shape.

After a big trip

2010-08-16T09:31:00.003+02:00

Vienna (Fino) Bread Recipe

2010-08-06T11:14:00.004+03:00

After a very long time and many trials, I finally figured out how to make Vienna Bread (commonly known in Egypt as Fino). The bread has a very thin and soft crust, very light, and chewy. Here is the recipe.
Ingredients:
850 ml of flour (if you have a cup of 200 ml, then just measure 4.25 times) (roughly 550-600 g)
210 ml warm water
85 ml oil
42 g fresh yeast (you can substitute for about 10 g of active dry yeast)
5 tbsp sugar
1/3 tsp salt

For this recipe I use my bread machine, but if you have an electric mixer with dough extention or even by hand it should be ok. Add the yeast to the water, then add 1 tsp sugar, then mix well until all yeast is dissolved. Now in the bread machine (mixing bowl) add everything except flour and salt. On top of that add the flour. Mix for 5 minutes on low speed. Let rest for 5 minutes. Add the salt and mix on medium/high speed for 15 minutes. Let it rise in a warm place (the bread machine should do that for you if you select the dough cycle) for about 50-60 minutes, the dough will be roughly 3 times the original size. Punch down, divide into 4 pieces for big loaves. Make each piece into a ball then spread it into a rectangle, roughly 20x35 cm. Roll to get a 35 cm long loaf. Pleace on baking paper and let rise for about 25 minutes in a warm _humid_ place. I heat the oven to 50 degrees, add 100 ml of hot water to the bottom of the oven, turn it off, and put my bread inside. After 25 minutes, take the bread out of the oven, heat the oven till it's 200 degrees (not any less). Spray the bread with a mixture of sugar and water (1 tbsp sugar for 125 ml water). Put the bread in the oven, set the oven to roughly 230-240 degrees, and add another 100 ml of hot water to the bottom of the oven. The bread should start showing color in 3 mintues and should be red/light brown colored in 8-10 minutes. Take bread out, spray once more with water and sugar. Let the bread cool for a while (the crust will become soft during that time). Bag the bread, it will stay fresh for roughly 2-3 days when properly bagged. Or refregirate/freeze for more time. Defrosts/heats very well in a microwave oven.

This recipe was created completely by me, use it, don't publish it.

NOTE: I will post photos when I make the bread next time.

file permissions and chmod

2010-07-20T15:25:00.002+03:00

When you "ls -l" you get some crazy symbols on the left similar to "drwxr-xr-x". These represent the file permissions. Here is how they work.
You have 10 letters: "0123456789"
0 will be 'd' if it's a directory and '-' otherwise
123, 456, 789 correspond to the rights for "owner", "group" (owner's group), "every body else"
so, 1,4,7 are for the "read" right
2,5,8 are for the "write" right
3,6,9 are for the "execute" right
If you have the right, there will be an 'r', 'w', or 'x' respectively, otherwise a '-'
The command to change those is chmod. To change something, you must have a "write" right, or be a root.
chmod works in 2 ways:
- Either write "chmod xxx file" where x is a single octadecimal digit corresponding to the rights you give to each group, where the 1st x is for the 1st group and so on.
As a side note, here is a table for octadecimal transformation into binary:
0 -> 000
1 -> 001
2 -> 010
3 -> 011
4 -> 100
5 -> 101
6 -> 110
7 -> 111
so, now map the 3 binary digits to "rwx" and you get your rights for one group. For example, 5, which is 101, represents r-x rights.

- the other way to use chmod is to do use some letters
'u' = user (owner)
'g' = group
'o' = others
'a' = all (the 3 permissions)
'r' = read
'w' = right
'x' = execute
'-' = remove
'+' = add
and you write it such as "chmod [a|u|g|o]+ [+|-] [r|w|x]+". What this means in english is, write chmod, then write any combination of "augo" then write '+' or '-' then write any combination of "rwx". So u+x will give the owner execute right and og-rw will remove the read and write from others and group.
Take care because sometimes a-r or a-w or u-r or u-w can be dangerous if you don't have root access. There are a lot of other options, consult the chmod manual (man chmod) for the full details.

kturtle scripts

2010-07-10T12:06:00.009+03:00

I modified the leaf script from http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~mbanaji/recreation/kturtle.html to work with kturtle and I wrote my own Mandelbrot set tutrle script. I thought this might be useful for someone else.

Here is the code for the mandelbrot set. The code can scale to very high resolution but you will face terrible problems with kturtle speed. For best performance, select full speed (No highlight) from the Run menu.

Here is the code for the leaf. It is a modified version to work with kturtle as well as some fixed logic mistakes. Again use the same running environment as mandelbrot for best results.

Forgot to say, these files will not work if you just copy/paste them in the kturtle editor, you should .turtle files then open them from kturtle. This is because the turtle script is different from what is saved in the file and when you save/open it translates back and forth between both.

Cranking to power a laptop

2010-07-07T11:30:00.003+03:00

I was watching a guy talking about that they want to create a laptop that gives you a 1:10 ratio of cranking vs. operation time. A human cranking with a good generator that doesn't lose a lot in the process of converting the energy could give a 100 watts output for a few minutes after which he will start getting tired and the output will decrease. So what this guy is talking about is only achievable if you can get your laptop to function under 10 watts. Which is a feasible number, and actually it is currently at 8 watts with a target of 2 watts. Now the other option is mentioned was to hang a heavy rock on a pulley that would rotate your generator and you would just pull the rock up when it's approaching the ground to sustain the electricity generation. Here he has done a lot of imagination. Let's say you have a 5 kg rock, you hang it 2 meters high. The energy you stored in that rock is mgh which is 5*10*2. This is 100 joules. If you even have the 2 watts laptop, 100 joules will sustain you for 50 seconds. So it seems you need a 100kg rock, along with a pulley and a rope that could support that, and even then, it would give you roughly a quarter hour of operation time.

I believe that our devices had gone far beyond our capability to generate their power by pedaling. We either need extremely power efficient devices that operate in the range of 0.1-0.5 watts, or we need to generate the power in another way.

I wanna go to MIT

2010-06-28T21:56:00.002+03:00

I am astonished at the HUGE difference between the way I was taught in Egypt and the way things are done at MIT. Believe it or not, at the GUC I couldn't stand a lecture, I slept in or didn't attend at least 60% of all lectures, and now I cannot stop watching MIT video lectures. I watched 4 lectures in a row, and I really cannot stop although I know most of the information there.

So, I really really wanna go to MIT.

Quantum Physics

2010-06-28T18:10:00.003+03:00

I remember very clearly that it was part of our curriculum in the 3rd semester at the GUC that we should have done an introduction to quantum physics. Our luck was out enough that we had a professor that decided to skip that out when he didn't have enough time to explain it. What stupidity that was. For the professor, watch and learn how it's done.

Try Linux

2010-06-18T15:44:00.003+03:00

Hello People,
now, I've been using Linux or GNU/Linux for quite a long time, and it is quite clear to me that it is much more superior to Microsoft Windows. For me, the superiority lies in one perticular aspect, I have control over my hardware. First of all, Linux is quite rich with tools that gives you the needed flexibility to do most of the things you want to do with your hardware. Second, the tools perform the way they are supposed to.
Away from all reasons why you should use Linux, which is not the purpose of this post, I would like to make a tiny commitment. For all of you out there that really want to use Linux, or at least try, and don't know where to start. I am willing to provide the needed assistance and put you on the right track at least to try using Linux for a few months.

If you are someone who wants to use linux, or who already does but has problems somewhere, just leave me a comment on this blog post (preferably stating your e-mail address) and I will contact you back and we will get your system running in some way or another.

Just give it a try, it's really worth it.

[UPDATE] If you need a Linux CD, almost any Distribution, please leave a comment below. I will either provide instructions on how to download and burn one yourself, how to order one for free (not recommended as it puts more financial burden on the distro), or I will burn you one myself.

Earth Resources

2010-06-17T18:51:00.003+03:00

I have been thinking for a while about the exploitation of earth's resources. We're consuming oil, coal, forests, water, fish, etc at an extremely fast rate. We far exceeded earth's capability to re-produce those resources. Even something like nuclear energy sources, they seem to have no side effects, but in fact, we are releasing huge amounts of energy. Think of it like that, there is a certain amount of energy trapped in the doomed uranium atom that went into the reactor, that energy was released, part of it is released as heat, and is dumped into water or air, and the rest is converted to electricity. But the story doesn't end there, this electricity eventually finds its way to someone's home, where he will use it to generate heat, or turn a motor. Even the energy that goes into turning a motor or lighting some place, this eventually is absorbed by something that transforms that into heat.

We need concrete, we need food, we need wood, we need iron, we need .... And the world population is so big that we are using the resources faster than they are generated. I personally don't see any way out of this death trap except by decreasing the population of earth. Countries don't only need to maintain a stable population, they need to decrease their population. I believe that some studies should be done to estimate the optimal population for earth that grants a decent quality of life and at the same time consumes resources at a pace less than or equal to earth's capability of reproducing those resources.

What is Expo in RC airplanes

2010-06-09T11:06:00.003+03:00

It seems to me through the many videos that I watched that many people don't really understand what the "Expo" (Exponential) function does on an RC transmitter. Most people believe that the expo will smoothen/dampen out the movements of the airplain and make it not so sensitive, which is not true, in fact, partially, the expo will MAKE the airplane more sensitive and twitchy. As I am studying engineering, I see exponential curves almost everyday, so I will try my best to explain how they work.

First of all, let's start by showing the difference between an exponential and a linear function. An exponential function is on the form y=e^x (^ means "to the power") and if we draw x vs y on a curve, here is how it will look like.
Opposed to exponential functions, there are linear functions whose graph should look like a line. Here is an example of how they look.
You should naturally be wondering now, what the hell does this have to do with RC flying. I will explain that right now. Imagine that your control sticks are the X axis of the graph, when you move your stick to a certain position, your transmitter translates that into the y value of the curve, and that's the value that's actually sent to the receiver and thus to the servos.
Now let's see how each graph affects the airplane. The linear function, which is the default one, if you tilt (move) your control stick 1 degree (think of it as 1 mm), the servo moves 1 degree in that same direction (think of it also as 1 mm). Let's say you "really" want to dampen your airplane movements. This you can do by going to your airplane's curves and just making then look like a line that is not very steep, a little closer to the horizontal, this means that now, if you tilt your stick 1 degree, the servo will move only 0.5 degrees, which is "damping/smoothing" the movements. But this has a disadvantage, let's say that when you tilt you stick to the max it goes 10 degrees. Now your servo will go 5 degrees. When in fact, your servo can physically go up to 10 degrees. Thus you are using some maneuvrability, and actually some capability to recover from a possible crash for example.
The expo now comes in handy, let's see how the expo function behaves. In the expo function, the amount that the servo moves does not depend only on how much did you tilt your stick, but also on where it is. So for example if you center your stick to zero and then tilt it 1 degree, the servo will move 0.5 degrees. Now, take your stick and tilt it 9 degrees and consider that your new starting position. If you tilt your stick 1 more degree, the servo will react to that with a movement of 2 degrees now. I know it might be a little hard to grasp, just sit and look at the curves and think about it. What the expo function now does for you is that it makes movements near the zero position of the stick move the servos less, while movements near the extremes of the stick move the servo more. This is very useful because small movements near the center are usually used when you are hovering a helicopter and just making small adjustments to keep it in place, or flying and air plane on idle and also making small adjustments to keep it streigt or make a wide bank or something like that. At the same time, movements near the extremes of the stick are used when you are making stunts or trying to recover from a possible crash. In those situations, sensitivity doesn't really matter since you are already making big movements and jamming the stick left and right all the way.

So, to sum it up, expo doesn't decrease the twitchiness or the plane or dampen the movements, it does that only near the center of the stick, but compensates for this by making movements near the end of the stick more twitchy and sensitive to give you the full range of your control surfaces/servos. A linear function is just an almost direct map between your control sticks movement and the servo movement, which means, if you move your control stick 1 degree the servo will move 1 degree not depending on whether the stick moves near the center or near the extremes. (Please note that it doesn't necessarily mean that your servo will move 1 degree for each 1 degree tilt of the stick, the servo could move 2 or 3 degrees for each 1 degree from the stick... this was just an example to demonstrate. But you can change the amount the servo moves for each "x" movement of the stick in your curves or there was another place where you could set the throws or something like that. I just don't remember the name in the menus, you would specify how much % of the servo movement should correspond to your 100% stick movement, and the computer calculates everything else for you. Note, you have 2 settings for this, one is called Normal-Rates, and the other is called Dual-Rates, so basically you can configure 2 sets of curves, one for each.)

I hope this little article was helpful for somebody out there, please let me know if you like it.

Only she looks at me that way

2010-06-06T21:48:00.004+03:00

Taken in Wuerzburg, Germany on Saturday 5th of June 2010.

Image Type: jpeg (The JPEG image format)
Width: 3872 pixels
Height: 2592 pixels
Camera Model: NIKON D60
Date Taken: 2010:06:05 15:24:16
Exposure Time: 1/125 sec
Aperture Value: f/4.5
ISO Speed Rating: 100
Flash Fired: Flash did not fire
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Focal Length: 32.0 mm
Software: Ver.1.01

In Egypt

2010-04-13T05:24:00.001+02:00

I am sitting right in my room in Egypt now. Will be there for the next 23 days.

Intelligence

2010-01-18T22:08:00.004+02:00

Since this is my blog, this post talks about intelligence from my point of view.

I perceive most people as stupid :D. I don't dispite them, I don't judge them, and I don't disrespect them for that, but that's how I perceive it.
Why are most people not intelligent... Why do people fail to use their minds...
Here is my own explanation
For me, Intelligence is composed of three factors:

Genetics: The power of mind you inherited from your parents (the processor).
The collection of knowledge: The experiences and the things you learned (the database).
The way you think: The way you taught yourself how to tackle a problem (the algorithm).

1. Genetics:
This is basically how your mind is constructed or something. You inherited that from your parents, your parents have over the years of evolution developed a mind that is more powerful than some and less powerful than others. You can't be more intelligent in that aspect. This type of intelligence grows as you grow, you are born with a tiny brain but that grows as you grow, and probably settles down and doesn't grow more around the age of 20-21 or something. Since I am a computer engineer, I'd like to call that your processor. Once you're working with a certain processor, you cannot get it running any faster, it's the hardware. BUT!! that's not everything, there's still a huge difference of what runs on that processor and what kind of information does that processor has access to. Everybody was born with some hardware; so everybody has the basic platform to work with. I perceive this type of intelligence as the least affecting the overall problem solving skills (practical intelligence) of a person.

2. The collection of knowledge:
This is composed of all the things you learned over the years... You already know solutions to some problems, actually a looooot of solutions to a looooot of problems. This information acts as your database of solutions to the problems you know. You can pull out a solution you already know and use it right away (or modify it a little and use it). Everything there is ready, organized, efficient, and pre-thought (either by you or someone else). For example, if I ask you this problem 1+1=?. You will answer right away, '2', because you (or your math book's author) already thought about that and you know it. The extra-ordinary thing is, THIS IS THE TYPE OF INTELLIGENCE THEN ARE TRYING TO TEACH YOU AT SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY. They are actually trying to teach you how to be more intelligent by teaching you solutions that other people thought out before. This is the source of all technology today. In the old ages, people used to think of solutions to many problems; but these were not documented or not communicated to other people, and eventually lost. So at some point, people needed to rethink something many times because the pre-thought solution was not communicated to them, or completely lost. When the world started discovering means to communicate, document, and centralize solutions the world already knows, knowledge started spreading and the world seems to be becoming more intelligent. But the fact is, it's not.. Human brain anatomy didn't change; we didn't evolve that much, physically, in the past 500 years. The good news is, you can learn this type of intelligence. Just don't let some problem slip through your fingers without KNOWING and STORING the solution for it so it's ready next time you need it. The bad news is, you use a mere small fraction of the knowledge you collected. People feel if they learn a solution there will be a very small chance (probability) to use it later, because it's very rare that you're faces of a problem you learned the solution for. This urges people not to KNOW or STORE the solution for a problem they faced before because it seems too much effort for a very little chance to use it later. But guess what?? If everytime you face a problem and know the solution for it, you just neglect keeping this solution neatly stored in your mind, you will end up with no database at all... If your database is small, this makes things even worse, it makes the probability of finding a solution for a problem even smaller.. and you feel that there's even less chance of using it later. Pretty bad isn't it? This, in my opinion, is the main reason people are stupid. People you know that you think have solutions for everything simply know how to never let something go without KNOWing how and why this thing behaves that way, and they STORE that in their mind. You use this type of intelligence when you quickly solve a problem.

3. The way you think:
The way people think is different. Some people think about the theory/idea behind the problem, try to find a logical way, then formulate the solution according to that. Others may keep trying any random pattern of solution till the figure out the one that works. There are many types of thinking patterns, many of them I don't know of. This thinking pattern is self-taught, nobody would teach you that. You probably have taught yourself this over the years. You might even have many thinking patters, you might even have one that you favor other the others. You thinking pattern along with your database are our most powerful problem solving tools. You might even have a database of thining patters along with information about when to use them. I like to think of the thinking pattern as the algorithm that runs on your processor. Your algorithm might be stupod and takes a lot of time, may be even never reaches a solution, and your algorithm might be very intelligent and finds a solution in seconds. Your algorithm might be even more advanved that it detects the type of problem and executes a different algorithm suitable for the type of problem. For example, if you tell me unlock a small bicycle lock which has a combinational lock which has only 1 disk with numbers. I would right away try all of them and see which works. There are only 10 possibilities, trying each will take 2 seconds, you have your solution in 20 seconds. I know this because I have an entry in my database saying "Brute force (try all solutions) => use it when you have a small number of solutions". If the bicycle lock had 6 disks with numbers, I might now think about how this lock works and try to find a flaw in the design that would get it open. Or I might think what is the easiest way to break the lock/chain. Again, this type of intelligence is self-taught, it grows over the years. The bad news is, people are still stupid, why? Because people BELIEVE they cannot get more intelligent, they believe it soooo deep in their hearts that they completely don't try or even think remotely of the possibility there might be a way to be a little more intelligent. So they don't try to improve on their way of thinking, sometimes don't even perceive they have a way of thinking. This type of intelligence is slow, tiring, and needs thinking. You need to take your time with the problem and understand it, then come up with a solution, sometimes even in the form of many partial solutions that individually won't work. Remember, you need to STORE the result you came up with after you use this type of intelligence in your database; otherwise it will be very expensive to use this type every time.

Conclusion:
Your mind, is your mind, it will not change and it won't grow. But, what you use your mind for is completely changeable, you can think in a completely new way, you can learn different types of thinking, know them and know when to use each. You can also store a very large database of pre-thought solutions that you can very quickly modify or use out of the box (sorry out of your mind). The biggest part of your intelligence is self taught.

YOU CAN GET MORE INTELLIGENT. VERY EASILY.

Roasted Chicken (Recipe)

2010-01-01T01:43:00.005+02:00

Here's a very very simple and fast recipe for you.
Ingredients:
- 1 Chicken
- 1 to 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp allspice (optional)
- ground red hot pepper (optional)
- 2 tbsp oil

Recipe:
- Wash your chicken
- cut through the center of the breast of the chicken, through the breastbone until the breast is completely separated
--> OR cut an medium onion in wedges and place it in your chicken
- season the outside of the chicken with the spices you have
- flip the chicken open through the cut and place it in a pan (see picture) and cut some slits through the breast and thighs
--> OR if you didn't cut the chicken then place it in a pan and cover it with aluminum foil
- place your chicken in a preheated over, 180 deg C in case of the cut chicken, or 220 in case of a chicken covered in foil.
- leave the chicken in for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (uncover the foil for the last 10-20 minutes in case of the whole chicken)

Enjoy it and tell me if you liked it :D

Christmas Turkey - Episode IV - Roasting (Recipe)

2009-12-26T13:31:00.006+02:00

Now the final stage, roasting your turkey:
You can say this is the easiest part :D

Since I don't have a meat thermometer, then I will provide guidelines to get the turkey well done without using one. Moreover because we, egyptians, like our meat very well cooked, this recipe will get ur turkey very well cooked. If you don't like that, you might want to follow something like these guidelines.

Ingredients:
- some butter (same as from seasoning)

Recipe:
- Put the turkey in a roasting pan, or on the oven rack and put a pan under it to collect the dropping juices.
- cover the seasoned and buttered turkey with a tent of alumunim foil (donot let the tent touch the turkey, this might cause the skin to stick to the tent and tear on removal).
- preheat the oven to 220-230 deg C.
- put the covered turkey in the preheated oven.
- leave the turkey for 40 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180 deg C.
- calculate the cooking time, 40 additional minutes for each kg of turkey, this is the minimum time for cooking. for my turkey it was 40+40*5.6 = 4.4 hours
- for a well done turkey, calculate it based on 50 additional minutes for each kg, for my turkey 40+50*5.6 = 5.33 hours
- now leave the turkey alone for all except the last hour of cooking.
- when 1 hour is remaining, take the turkey out, remove the tent, and paint it with butter. Now put it back in the oven without the tent.
- redo the last step every 15-20 minutes until your turkey looks exactly the way you want.

Guten appetit.

Christmas Turkey - Episode III - Stuffing (Recipe)

2009-12-26T12:54:00.010+02:00

Okay, so here you go for the stuffing. Take care that the stuffing has to be ready when the turkey needs it, especially if your turkey was in brine, because right after you take your turkey out of the brine, it starts loosing the water it took in, so better get the turkey in the oven 20-30 minutes after taking it ouf ot the brine.

Ingredients:
- 6-8 cups bread, cut into 1-2 cm cubes
- 100 gm walnut
- 100 gm almonds
- 3 big chopped onions
- 2 chopped colored paprikas
- 6 tbsp butter
- 1 green apple, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup raisins
- Stock from turkey giblets (boil them for 30 minutes with some salt)
- 2 tbsp dried parsley (substitute 1/4 cup chipped fresh parsley)
- some salt and ground pepper

Recipe:
- Take the bread to the oven on medion-low heat (160-180 deg C) for 10-15 minutes, till dry and golden red.
- roast the nuts on low heat in a pan (without adding any butter or oil). Afte roasing, break them with your fingers.
- melt 3 tbsp butter in a pan and add the onions and the paprika and fry for 10 minutes
- melt 3 tbsp butter in a pan and add the bread, fry for 2 minutes or so.
- add the onions and paprika to the bread, and add all remaining ingredients
- add 1 to 1&1/2 cup of stock, make sure not to make the bread very moist, the bread should be half moist half dry.
- cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

Ready :D

Now you can stuff your turkey, in the cavity, between the skin and the meat, between the thighs and the breast, in the neck cavity or any other place you like.

Christmas Turkey - Episode II - Seasoning (Recipe)

2009-12-26T12:19:00.006+02:00

Now time to season your turkey:
Ingredients:
- 1 orange
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tsp thyme (za3tar)
- 1 tsp all spice (baharat)
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 bay leaves, break it finely with your fingers
- 1 tsp rosemary, break it finely with your fingers
- some molten butter (substitute some olive oil/normal oil for that)

Recipe:
- Rinse the turkey with normal tap water after removing from the brine.
- insert your hand between the meat and the skin (separate them along the way) from the neck and go over the breast, and from the cavity opening and go over the thighs.
- mix all ingredients in a small bowl.
- cut the orange, and juice it all over the turkey, inside the cavity and between the skin and the meat.
- take small quantities of the mixed seasoning and put it between the skin and the meat in the separated places. Also season inside the cavity. You should use half the amount for this.
- Spread the other half over the skin of the turkey from the outside, make sure the seasoning is spread evenly.
- Now you can stuff the turkey if you want.
- the left over from the orange is used to plug the cavity to keep the stuffing in place.
- after seasoning, paint the turkey with molten butter (should solidify when touching the turkey because the turkey should be just out of the fridge).

NOTE:
- You should start with Episode III - Stuffing before even taking the turkey out of the brine. But the actual stuffing comes after most of the seasoning is done.

Christmas Eggnog (Recipe)

2009-12-26T11:58:00.006+02:00

Again, one amazing Christmas Recipe, here you go:

Ingredients:
(yields 4-5 cups)
- 350 ml cold milk
- 3 cold eggs
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 cloves
- some vanilla (I use 2 packs of vanilla with sugar)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup cold whipping cream (substitute 1/2 cup of milk if you don't have whipping cream)
- 3/4 cup dark rum (you can use your favorite alcohol here)
- 1/2 tsp salt

Recipe:
- Separate the eggs, put the whites in a pan and the yolks in another
- Add the salt to the whites, and whisk them, you need continuous, hard, fast whisking for may be 3 minutes. The whites will start to foam, keep whisking until stiff peaks form (lift a litte of the foam with the whisk, it should form a peak, now rotate the whisk, if the peak doesn't lean to any side or move, that's your stiff peak).
- now, add the sugar to the yolks, and beat them till they get a softened butter appearance.
- add the rum to the yolks little by little while stirring.
- add the nutmeg, the cloves and the vanilla.
- add the milk again while stirring.
- now add the egg whites.
- and at last, add the whipping cream.
- stirr for 1 more minute.
- garnish with a little ground nutmeg

And it's ready :D, Enjoy

NOTE:
- after whisking the egg whites, the foam will start to diminish, so if you need to make the eggnog well before serving, then do everything except for whisking the eggwhites.. then 30-20 minutes before serving, whisk the whites and add them to the mixture and you're ready.
- If you are concerned about foodsafety, and/or don't like eating raw eggs, please don't use this recipe.

Christmas Turkey - Episode I - Brine (Recipe)

2009-12-26T11:38:00.007+02:00

After this turkey was cooked, it turned out to be very well seasoned till the deepest meat inside. Here's how you go for this:

Ingredients:
- 1 cup table salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1 orange
- 1 medium onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 bay leaves (wara2 lawra)
- 1 tbsp dried thyme (za3tar)
- 1 tbsp ground black pepper
- 6 litres of cold water

Recipe:
- In a large bucket (more than 10 litres big), combine the salt and the dry ingredients with the water first, and stir well until the salt is completely dissolved.
- Now, juice the lemon and the orange on the water, and then cut the remaining into wedges, then add them to the water.
- Cut the onion into wedges and add all the remaining ingredients to the water.
- Stir well.
- Put your turkey inside, breast side down, and cover the bucket.
- Put the bucket in the fridge for 8 to 24 hours.

NOTE:
- Leaving the turkey for more than 24 hours will result in a little oversalted turkey, do that only if you like your food salty.
- Remember to wash your turkey well before putting it into the brine.
- Remember to wash your turkey well after removing it from the brine.

Blank Page

2009-12-09T14:17:00.003+02:00

This Blog features a Blank Page according to the recommendations of the TPILB-Project.

Who are Copts??

2009-09-13T22:57:00.003+02:00

Well, I just wanted to explain this. Mostly, I won't be using my own words.
Wikipedia says, quote "Copts are Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the first century. The word "Coptic" was originally used in Classical Arabic to refer to Egyptians in general (see etymology section), but it has undergone semantic shift over the centuries to mean more specifically Egyptian Christian after the bulk of the Egyptian population converted to Islam." unqote. And thus, Copts (Egyptian Orthodox Christians) are indeed the only successors of the pharaohs whose roots are well established.

After the Arabic invasion of Egypt in the 7th century, again I quote from Wikipedia "The Arabs imposed a special tax, known as Jizya, on the Christians who acquired the status of dhimmis, and all native Egyptians were prohibited from joining the army. Egyptian converts to Islam in turn were relegated to the status of mawali. Heavy taxation was one of the reasons behind Egyptian organized resistance against the new occupying power, as well as the decline of the number of Christians in Egypt." unquote. Quote "The Arabs in the 7th century seldom used the term Egyptian, and used instead the term Copt to describe the people of Egypt. Thus, Egyptians became known as Copts, and the non-Chalcedonian Egyptian Church became known as the Coptic Church." unquote.

Coptic life kept deteriorating throughout the centuries until the rule of "Muhammad Ali" in the early 19th century, but that didn't last for long though.

Quote from Wikipedia "In 1952, Nasser led some army officers in a coup d'état against King Farouk, which overthrew the Kingdom of Egypt and established a republic. Nasser's mainstream policy was pan-Arab nationalism and socialism. The Copts were severely affected by Nasser's nationalization policies because, although they represented about 20% of the population, they were so economically prosperous as to have held more than 50% of the country's wealth. In addition, Nasser's pan-Arab policies undermined the Copts' strong attachment to and sense of identity about their Egyptian pre-Arab, and certainly non-Arab, identity. As a result, many Copts left their country for Australia, North America or Europe."

I think this little history concludes somehow, Who are Copts?

irssi, very nice and neat IRC client and TERMINAL BASED

2009-07-25T20:50:00.003+03:00

Juggling

2009-07-25T18:40:00.006+03:00

So, it was a hype, I decided to learn juggling, and it turned out to be quite a success. I juggle tennis balls for over 100 throws and catches, and I seem to juggle anything else that I can throw in the air. I juggled soccer balls for at least 15-20 throws and catches :D.

Am7aya fi forn afrangy -- A book by Christine Amir -- قمحاية في فرن أفرنجي

2009-07-21T14:28:00.006+03:00

Unfortunately, I haven't got the chance to read the whole book, though i've read almost all the introduction. The book is in arabic. It talks about how and why a 21 yo girl chose to travel out of Egypt to study in Europe. Sorry to Egypt, but I really like the book.
Check the links below:

Book's Blog,
Book Signing Facebook Event

gstreamer0.10-good-plugins-ossv4

2009-07-20T16:38:00.001+03:00

Little patch for the PKGBUILD of archlinux AUR package gstreamer0.10-good-plugins-ossv4 to upgrade it from version 10.10.8 to 0.10.15. Here is the patch.

This is one VERY GOOD Egyptian song

2009-07-19T16:28:00.004+03:00

Web-Accelerators slow down the web !!!

2009-07-05T03:08:00.001+03:00

Web-accelerators are a nuisance, they are counterproductive and they are a danger to some web servers and the infrastructure of the web itself. The more people use these products the slower the web will become and web surfers will perceive a need for more of these snake oil products.

Read the full article here.

Vegetating

2009-06-20T23:36:00.001+03:00

For some reason everybody seems to be in the vegetative state... nobody wants to use their minds, their hands, their legs... Now only watching a movie is considered fun... anything else that involves moving or thinking suddenly became not interesting anymore.

Green your e-mails

2009-06-20T02:54:00.002+03:00

E-mail printing can be VERY paper consuming.. especially that you can just read it on ur computer..
Add this line to your signature, and I am sure that it will remind some people not to waste paper.

P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

Music

2009-06-20T01:39:00.003+03:00

Guys, Let's build some very GOOD playlist. One that contains all the best songs ever made.
Please add a comment on this post, including what you think are the best 3 songs of all time. Please use this format "Song Name_Album Name - Artist Name". Also provide a link to the version/remix you like the most on youtube or something.

Renault Website.. What a shame

2009-06-19T17:33:00.002+03:00

Young Kids, dancing ballet

2009-06-02T23:11:00.001+03:00

click the title of the post, this is, EXTREME

COMMENTS!!!

2009-05-27T21:42:00.001+03:00

I know from my google analytics that a LOT of people visit my blog, and I know they spend some time on it. What I don't know is, why people feel afraid to comment.....
I will really appreciate it if you let me know ur opinion.

Mandelbrot

2009-05-27T01:03:00.005+03:00

Guys, I wrote the mandelbrot algorithm myself, and I make it generate a bmp file. You can check the result down here.
The program is composed of 4 files
mandelbrot.cpp
utils.cpp
utils.h
Makefile

Save the 4 files in the same folder and type
"make" to compile
"make run" to run
"make clean" to clean
pretty obvious ha :D

Best Robot dance I've ever seen

2009-05-20T17:17:00.003+03:00

You should totally watch this

Photography

2009-03-08T18:35:00.018+02:00

Some photos I took at the Middle Ages Christmas Market in Esslingen.

196 Algorithm

2009-02-25T15:54:00.009+02:00

This is one of the Open Math Problems..
The problem is simply is "Determining if the 196 algorithm will halt on the number 196". The 196 algorithm is very simple, reverse the input number, add it to the original input number, and halt if you have a palindrome, if you don't re-execute the algorithm with the new number. I wrote the 196 algorithm in java, and I just gave it a try by running it for a while, and writing the results to a file, I got a 39 MB file in 1 minute approx. and the algorithm didn't halt of course. Now am thinking about approaching the problem with a pen in my hand. If you think about it, the 196 algorithm will directly halt if you give it a number where all digits are less than 5, or otherwise, if every 2 opposing digits sum up not to yield a return ( > the output on a file to store it).

Code -> http://pastebin.com/f53aa5124

The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time

2009-02-25T10:51:00.002+02:00

A very nice article Here.

Linux FAQ

2009-02-21T12:09:00.003+02:00

A friend of mine asked me some questions, and I though they might be helpful for other people.

Some how I feel that my linux is slower than windows XP, not the boot up time but the reponses on button click,opening a web page etc..
I am using mac4linux theme , will it consume any CPU bandwidth?

This doesn't necessarily mean that your theme is the reason, there are other factors that can slow down your response time. This could be something like compositing (a program called compiz, that does some sort of animation and effects forlinux desktop), compiz requires some high capabilities, like a good graphics cards... disabling compositing will greatly improve your response time.

Also this could be due to some malfunction in a program that sucks your resources, by experience, firefox sometimes does that especially if there is some flash running. Also firefox leaks some memory (the memory it takes keeps growing and never shrinks with time), this will cause your RAM to be full after sometime, and this will cause your computer to start using the swap space on your Hard Drive, which will really slow down the response time. Both can be solved by closing firefox (Closing the page containing flash sometimes doesn't solve it), please not that when you close a program it doesn't get closed immediately even if its window disappears, it will probably will take some time, 1 to 30 seconds, it might not even close at all. I would rule out the theme as the reason and check compositing and firefox, although this might not be true.

There is something really useful that you can do to have a guess about what is sucking your resources. Right-Click on the pannel (top or bottom of the page), select "+ Add to Panel", then select "System Monitor" (you can use the search field on top), then click "+ Add" once and then close. A new Item will appear in your panel, Right-Click it, Choose "Preferences". Now select all the Check-Boxes, Decrease the "System Monitor Width" to 10 pixels and set the "System monitor update interval" to 500 milliseconds, and click close. This will put a graph for most of your computer/laptop resources in the panel, that will show you what was happening in the last 5 seconds (you can Increase this amount by either increasing the width or the interval, but 5 seconds do really well for me). Now keep your eye on this graph while using your competer/laptop. Check where are the spikes that stay high for a long time, (you can know the colors from the Preferences window). Now if you want more details, for example something uses your processor, or memory. Give a single-click to the graph, which will open the System Monitor. There you can see bigger graphs, but now let's go to the processes tab. There you can see each process running and its resource usage. If you press the field "CPU" (or Memory) from the table this will sort the processes according to their processor (Memory) usage. Now you can see clearly what is sucking up your resources and handle it.

I also just wanted to know the best softphone available for Linux... I came across some phones on web, the quality of the audio is not so good..... can you please suggest any?

I understand you need a SIP phone, which uses the SIP protocol to make calls through a VOIP provider.. Personally I couldn't get any to run correctly.. But there is some phones that people say are really good like Ekiga for example.

Also please feel free to ask about anything you would like about linux or other things at anytime, I am not a very terribly good expert, but at least I know some stuff.
Also, with linux googling your problem and reading some forums usually does it. If the problem is somehow extreme, you could join an IRC channel related to your problem and ask there, there is usually somebody to help.

Quote

2009-02-20T20:59:00.003+02:00

Lead, follow, or get out of the way. [Laurence J. Peter]

One of my dreams coming true - Shooting

2009-02-16T03:07:00.013+02:00

So finally I found a club nearby in Stuttgart where I could learn shooting competition Air Rifles. Yesterday was my first time :D. I used a 16,000 LE for 2 HOURS. Did aprox. 100 shots. You can see my results below :D. Hopefully I will go regularly and I hope those holes get a little more towards the center.

CUDA Project and Presentation - Steganography

2009-02-14T02:54:00.003+02:00

So, finalizing the semester and submitting everything....
Today I had my presentation for the General Purpose Programming with Graphics Card. Here are the presentation along with the project code.
Here you can find the code, the presentation and the report.
Project

Advanced Topics in Distributed Systems [SEMINAR]

2009-02-09T14:07:00.003+02:00

Today I finished my presentation for the seminar. It was about Reliable Gossip Based Multicast. Take a look if it's beneficial for you.
Report
Presentation

Linux is

2009-02-07T14:46:00.002+02:00

Let me explain some stuff about linux. First of all, about the safety, Linux is structured in a such way that the system is relatively safer than windows, and limiting the control of program (compared to your control) over your system. That's what have prevented Linux from the Virus explosion that happened for windows.
But away from safety, personally I don't use linux because of safety, I use it for 2 exact reasons, "Stability" and "Control" over my OWN hardware :D. That's what windows lacks generally. We could get into details here, if you'd like. There's a lot of examples where you don't have control over your own hardware in windows. For linux, in most cases, this doesn't happen at all. For example, once I had a couple of my friends over in my room, and we all needed internet access... I was able within 10 minutes to turn my laptop to a wireless router. To be honest, this worked for may b 6 months and they did some changes to the driver that made problems. This is control over my hardware. Talking about drivers, one of the main issues with linux, in my opinion is the quality as well as the availability of drivers for the various hardware. The hardware manufacturers are the one to blame for these problems. The usual scenario is that the manufacture makes the hardware and only provides drivers for windows, then the linux programmers have to reverse-engineer the device and write drivers for it. This solution provides a working driver, but sometimes not supporting the full functionality of the hardware. The hardware manufacturers could release the APIs for their devices and thousands of linux programmers would be more than happy to develop the drivers. OR they could write linux drivers for their own hardware as they do for windows, by the way, NVidia started with the second option.
Also, did you know that a lot of the very famous programs were first developed for linux.. like firefox, thunderbird, apache web server, sqlite and a lot of other software.

About stability, we should take a look at the servers field, where stability and reliability (uptime) is the key issue. http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html take a look here... Linux software (apache) takes more than half the market share for web servers.

One last thing, if we judge linux before really trying it for a relatively long amount of time, our judgment will will biased. Because the linux things will be really hard and annoying, and the tasks will seem long and complex.. just as they seemed when we started using windows.. we just need to get used to it first, and then judge the difference.

Myself, I used windows form 1998 - 2006 and linux 2006 - current. If, at least for my own needs, windows was a better operating system, I wouldn't have made the switch or I would have switched back.

Give it some thoughts, and may be if you'd like, give it a try.

Andrew Boktor

New Type of Stealing - Mobile Credit

2009-01-21T13:05:00.005+02:00

Recently in Egypt, some new ways to steal people have emerged. Thieves steal mobile phones credit !!!!
Well I have seen 2 ways of doing that. If you are familiar with GSM providers in Egypt, most if not all of them provide a service called Credit Transfer, allowing a user to transfer a part of his credit to another user.

1. The thief sends a message to a random number, the message is an identical copy of the message received from the service provider upon the reception of a credit transfer.
2. The thief then sends a second message to the same number saying, "sorry, i did a credit transfer to you by mistake, could you please transfer the credit back to me?" or something similar. The naiive user will transfer the credit, that he never received in the first place, back to the thief.

Another way used in stealing mobile phones credit that I have seen many times.
1. The thief manages to get the username and password of an MSN user.
2. The thief talks to random people, preferably an opposing sex to the stolen account's owner, telling them that he/she needs mobile credit really bad, and his/her father is preventing him from leaving the house to buy credit, so can you buy credit for me and just give me the number of the card... or a similar message.
3. The naiive user again buys the credit and sends the credit recharge code to the theif, which recharges his phone immediately to cut any way of going back for the user.

Those thieves probably sell the credit they accumulate either to mobile phone shops (which sell this credit through Credit Transfer to other users that needs small amounts of credit) or to the people on the street that sell the calls to people who don't own a mobile phone on the street.

My Ultimate Desktop

2008-08-24T12:16:00.003+03:00

This is my new Ultimate desktop :D I edited some xfce and gtk themes, and here was the result. The colors even go with The Perfect Wallpaper. If you need that theme, or anything close to it (may be only a change in the colors), please contact me, otherwise I think when I have a little free time I'll arrange the files and provide a link to them.

Recipe - Carrot Cake

2008-08-11T18:36:00.004+03:00

As you might already know, I like cooking, so I thought about posting some recipes here. May be someone could give a try.

I Personally tried ALL recipes posted here.

Carrot Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 cup oil

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 pack backing powder cocks

4 big eggs or 5 small ones

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons grounded cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups grated carrots (mabshour)

Dressing:

1 cup of sugar (then ground it), or 3/4 cup of powder sugar

1 teaspoon of grounded cinnamon

put the oil and the eggs and mix them well then add the vanilla and mix, add the sugar and mix then add the flour and the baking powder slowly while mixing add the salt and the cinnamon while mixing very well. add then the carrot and mix really really well.

get a 26 cm baking pan, oil it, then put some flour in and shake it well so it sticks to the oil. pour ur mix and put in a preheated oven to 170 degrees, leave it for around 45 mins b4 opening to check it (if u open b4 thatyou'll spoil the cake).

it should take around 1 hour to get cooked. to check if it's done, insert a thin knife into the middle of your cake 2 or 3 times, when u get the knife out, if u see ANY traces the cake left on it, then it still needs to stay more in the oven.

put the cinnamon on the grounded sugar, add one table spoon of water and stirr really really well keep doing so and add more water if needed but add it in really really small amounts and stirr well after adding water everytime keep doing it till you get a THICK paste, much thicker than honey, thicker that the cake paste after it was done. spead it on the top of your cake after it has cooled down to room temp. LEAVE the dressing in the air for a while to harden, otherwise it might melt when closed or when subject to some little heat.

Enjoy.

alternations, u might add more sugar, more cinammon or some nuts, peanuts are the best.

the one you ate today was with exactly no alternations from the recipe.

Bon Appetit.

The Crocodile Project

2008-07-26T00:55:00.004+03:00

Well, it's just for fun, I was bored, so I decided to start with the Crocodile project :D.
Here is the work so far. I only use my Swiss Champ.

Our Project Team

2008-07-15T21:19:00.003+03:00

From Left to Right, Steffen Koch, Myself (Andrew Boktor), Marleine Daoud, Proff. Dr. Thomas Ertl, Christiane Taras, and Fred Morcos

Hoping - by Youstina Daoud

2008-07-15T14:23:00.013+03:00

Hoping by ~Outa91 on deviant ART

GUC LOL 2

2008-06-30T17:32:00.003+03:00

Well, those 2 mails were sent to me by the GUC admission office. Ignoring that fact that their page doesn't work well with the 2nd most used web-browser, Firefox. Either this was the update in the e-mail, or there's some1 who doesn't know how to sum 1 bus + 1 bus :D

Snow Night

2008-06-29T14:20:00.004+03:00

Just another photo I took.

GUC LOL

2008-06-29T03:11:00.004+03:00

Click on the image for a larger view

It's my first time to see such English, and also first time to see someone asking me to prioritize something using TextFields.

On the way to GERMANY

2008-03-24T11:56:00.003+02:00

Probably while you're reading this post I'll be on my way to Germany for my summer semester. So talk to you from there.

so I'll be available on andrew.botros@gmail.com for mails and/or GoogleTalk
or mofied_andrew@hotmail.com for MSN Messenger.

This should have been posted very long ago, but seems it ended up in the drafts rather than published. Anyways here is my phone number as well: +491638510949

No More Dog AND...

2008-03-17T22:28:00.002+02:00

So, no more dog, mum didn't support him. Actually he was a she, i called her Pepsi, that went well with the color, I hope she keeps that name in her new home..
AND, I had an operation in my eye 1 hour ago.. it was FUNNY :D

I HAVE A DOG!!!!!!!

2008-03-12T22:48:00.003+02:00

ConnectmeTV

2008-03-11T13:40:00.004+02:00

I work now for ConnectmeTV, the environment at the company is really nice.. we're up to developing a complete UI for their device.. It's really nice and interesting.
So the company needs hirings, if you are "any" sort of developer or project manager please check the company website.

GasPaint v0.1

2008-03-10T23:04:00.007+02:00

GasPaint stands for "Graphics Assignment Painting Program" probably we were drunk when we invented that. It's OpenGL based completely manually coded.

get the source here or checkout svn
svn co http://andrewboktor.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/gaspaint

Developers:
Andrew Boktor (myself)
Fred Morcos
Marleine Daoud

Notes:

The filling code is awfully slow due to reading the buffer pixel by pixel not as a whole. There's a working filling code in the examples folder. Feel free to integrate it if you have time.
There's a hack made to correct the coordinates of the mouse clicks, I don't have any idea why this bug exists.
Undo/Redo haven't been yet implemented, feel free to contribute.

Andrew's Tetris v0.1

2008-03-10T22:27:00.009+02:00

Andrew's Tetris v0.1 is the first version of an OpenGL/freeglut based simple Tetris game implemented as an assignment for a Computer Graphics course.
Download the source along with the binary here, or checkout svn on

svn checkout http://andrewboktor.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/andrews_tetris-0.1 andrews_tetris_read_only Known Bugs:

There's something wrong with the rotation when you rotate beside the wall or another piece.

Feel free to post patches or other bugs.

and after all, Enjoy.

Rules for life

2008-02-16T01:42:00.002+02:00

Well, these are the 3 basic rules i discovered for life so far. They are ordered according to their priority, or importance.

- Have your OWN company.
- Take your wife with you if you achieve rule #3.
- Migrate out of Egypt.

The Perfect Wallpaper

2008-02-11T12:17:00.002+02:00

I think i finally found the perfect wallpaper.

I took this picture on a bridge in Germany - Passau summer 2007, no photoshop or other picture editing tools were used, this picture is right out of the camera.

Feel free to download it and use it as u want.

Men's Mind

2008-02-09T20:54:00.000+02:00

Going to Germany

2008-01-09T00:06:00.000+02:00

It was a gr8 day, started by a new baby bird that hatched 2day morning. Then going to college, we got an acceptance letter to go do our project "OpenGrafik" in germany, me and fred and marly. Then we hanged out and ate Cheesy Bites :D lol.

PAPER ONLY for god's sake

2007-12-26T23:03:00.000+02:00

lately, i noticed a rubbish bin @ the GUC with a label on it "Paper Only", some charity organization did it to encourage recycling of paper and so on. As i was so curious to know what would the egyptian population react to such a civilized situation :D. I went and opened the rubbish bin and looked inside, as the label saying "Paper Only" was so clear, i expected to find paper inside for a blink of an eye and then i was brought to reality -> "I Am Egyptian and i STILL Live in Egypt". I can describe what i remember i saw: 1 Molto cover, 2 Chipsy Covers, 2-3 Foam Plates, 4-6 Fluorescent lamps, 3-4 plastic glasses, and 1-2 pieces of paper. [citation needed] LOL

References:
B1.3 Near the study rooms @ the entrance of B2.3

Baby bird can walk :D

2007-12-23T21:35:00.001+02:00

Just wanted to keep u up with the news of my baby bird :D, now, it can walk nicely and it's getting bigger SOO fast. btw, don't u wanna get birds?? :D call me if u do :D

One more thing, today i got an amazing Christmas Gift from an amazing person, and just wanted to say thank you :).

Have a Merry Christmas for all.

New Baby Bird

2007-12-21T19:52:00.000+02:00

i've been having birds for around 23 months now, all that time trying to breed them to have baby birds that i can tame. Now i have 3 couples, white female+ gray/white male, blue female + pale yellow male, and blue female + green/yellow male, the latest one is my most recent couple. so @ last ,15 days ago, my first baby bird hatched (for my 2nd couple) after almost 20 infertile eggs or fertile eggs that died. it looks really nice, will add a pic to it when possible isA :). now my 3rd couple has 2 eggs, they should lay their 3rd egg 2day, probably will find it when i go back home. i think i will have a nice clutch this time.

1st Post on my Blog

2007-12-20T20:50:00.000+02:00

Well, this is my 1st post on my blog.
i was motivated to create a blog by a friend, Fred. So am creating the blog to post the new things i invent (e5tera3ati) :D.
As i achieved a big one today, a JDM Programmer, done completely with my own hands, i think i will have another post on how can u make ur own later.