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Mido Aboshihata

Posting and sharing thoughts and experiences on Business, Technology, Management, Photography and Arab American Life

Why the sky is blue? Wolfram Alpha has the answer...

You might have used Google to find answers to questions but you know once you hit that search button you are expecting to see a list of pages that may have the answer. Google for a while have put some answers of their own at the top of the page but what about questions like? Why the sky is blue? How many people graduated from this university?

There are tons of reviews and tricks on wolframalpha.com but the best tip of all is simply to use it you'll be shocked at the answers you'll get.

Why the sky is blue?

The sky's blue color is a result of the effect of Rayleigh scattering. Shorter-wavelength blue light is more strongly scattered in the earth's atmosphere than longer-wavelength red light; the human eye perceives the color blue when looking at the sky as a result.

via Wolfram|Alpha

The best trick of all for using Wolfram's Alpha answer engine is to use it when you have a question and don't feel "Lucky" with Google search. I probably have used that feature on Google.com a couple of times and never did again.

Wolfram Alpha breaks down your query and tries to provide an answer from structured data. You should try some random questions and then looked into the Wolfram Alpha examples and came up with this list of examples.

How many Polytechnic University graduates

http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+polytechnic+university+graduates

Information on a University

http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=polytechnic+university

Checking on a URL or a domain name

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=http%3A%2F%2Fflickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fhamada

For math lovers check this
http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Sierpenski%27s+Triangle&f1=5&x=2&y=8&f=SierpinskiGasket.n_5

For the financial folks
http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=ibm+stock

For Chemical engineers/chemistry folks
http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=H2SO4

For the music geeks
http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=C+Eb+G+C

For those watching your diet/calorie intake

http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1+bowl+of+cereal+%2B+2%25+milk+%2B+golden+raisins

Researching a name
http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Mohamedr&a=*C.Mohamed-_*GivenName-

For those in design

http://www39.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=colors+related+to+sea+green

Your NY lotto chances

http://www55.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=lottary+odds+in+ny

Any other tips/discoveries?

Posted November 28, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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Caffeine and Calories the battle of Buzz vs. Bulge

Iced Coffee has nearly 3 times the caffeine of a Double Espresso? It takes 30 minutes of fighting to burn off a Mocha Frappe Latte?

Love this...

The Buzz vs The Bulge: Caffeine & Calories

The amazing visual and data journalist David McCandless. Found this beautiful info-graphic. Can't wait till I get my hands on his book Visual Miscellaneum.

Filed under  //   bulge   buzz   calories   coffee   diet   infographics   visual   visual miscellaneum  
Posted November 25, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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Where is my Egyptian ____

Dont be surprised if your Egyptian Friend, Significant other, Lover, Stalker, Prince, Mother-in-law, Girlfriend, Coworker, Boss, Doctor, Lawyer, Financial Advisor, Scientist, Teacher, or Entertainer are "busy" tomorrow from
9:30AM till 11:30 PST LA
12:30PM till 2:30 EST NY
5:30PM - 7:30 GMT London
7:30PM - 9:30 EET Egypt
8:30PM - 10:30 EAT Sudan
2:30 AM - 4:30 JST Tokyo (Thursday)

You can google the current time for most cities in the world by using Google and searching for example: time Cairo http://www.google.com/search?q=time+Cairo

For those on the go and in the US you can use Google SMS by texting 466-453 (GOOGLE) and use the same search term: time Cairo
(A free service from Google but your service provider may charge you for SMS)

Filed under  //   EAT   Egyptian   est   gmt   google   JST   pst   screenshot   SMS   time  
Posted November 17, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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Using google translation in Arabic No need for keyboard too

Created this Arabic text using Google Translation by typing phonetically

عزيزتي أمبر،
أتمنى إن هذه الرسالة الموجزة تعجبك
إختبار: ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ١٠٠ ١٠٠٠
أبجد هوز !!!
بحبك يا أمبر :‎-)

Translates to:


Dear Amber,
I hope that this brief message you like
Test: 1 2 3 4 100 1000
Lorem Ipsum!!!
I love you, Amber: -)

I don't have an Arabic keyboard but I typed phonetically and Google translate generated the Arabic text and simultaneously translated it to English. This is amazing as it steps into territory for small software firms that specialize in language translation on the fly.

What's fascinating is how did they translate أبجد هوز to Lorem Ipsum. Totally different. This is the standard alphabetical order used in lists and for numbering paragraphs similar to the Greek.
The full list is as follows:
ابجد هوز حطي كلمن صعفس قرشت ثخذ ضظغ

Some of you may remember this alphabet from this Layla Morad Song
(ليلى مراد... أبجد هوز)

You might already know that Lorem Ipsum is basically dummy text generated to be used for the printing and typesetting industry. Some of these words though have Latin literature roots going back 2000 years! http://www.lipsum.com/

Filed under  //   Arabic   google   Lorem Ipsum   screencast   tips   translate   translation   video   youtube   أبجد هوز  
Posted November 17, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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Oxford Word of the Year 2009 is Unfriend

I like Intexticated and funemployed but Oxford Word of 2009 is UNFRIEND

Without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is: unfriend.

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

“It has both currency and potential longevity,” notes Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program. “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year. Most “un-” prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar “un-” verbs (uncap, unpack), but “unfriend” is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of “friend” that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!). Unfriend has real lex-appeal.”

Wondering what other new words were considered for the New Oxford American Dictionary 2009 Word of the Year?  Check out the list below.

Technology

hashtag – a # [hash] sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets (postings on the Twitter site) that contain similarly tagged items and view thematic sets

intexticated – distracted because texting on a cellphone while driving a vehicle

netbook – a small, very portable laptop computer with limited memory

paywall – a way of blocking access to a part of a website which is only available to paying subscribers

sexting – the sending of sexually explicit texts and pictures by cellphone

Economy

freemium – a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, with the aim of enticing users to pay for additional, premium features or content

funemployed – taking advantage of one’s newly unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests

zombie bank – a financial institution whose liabilities are greater than its assets, but which continues to operate because of government support

Politics and Current Affairs

Ardi(Ardipithecus ramidus) oldest known hominid, discovered in Ethiopia during the 1990s and announced to the public in 2009

birther – a conspiracy theorist who challenges President Obama’s birth certificate

choice mom – a person who chooses to be a single mother

death panel – a theoretical body that determines which patients deserve to live, when care is rationed

teabagger -a person, who protests President Obama’s tax policies and stimulus package, often through local demonstrations known as “Tea Party” protests (in allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773)

Environment

brown state – a US state that does not have strict environmental regulations

green state – a US state that has strict environmental regulations

ecotown - a town built and run on eco-friendly principles

Novelty Words

deleb – a dead celebrity

tramp stamp – a tattoo on the lower back, usually on a woman

Notable Word Clusters for 2009:

Twitter related:
Tweeps
Tweetup
Twitt
Twitterati
Twitterature
Twitterverse/sphere
Retweet
Twibe
Sweeple
Tweepish
Tweetaholic
Twittermob
Twitterhea
Obamaisms:
Obamanomics
Obamarama
Obamasty
Obamacons
Obamanos
Obamanation
Obamafication
Obamamessiah
Obamamama
Obamaeur
Obamanator
Obamaland
Obamalicious
Obamacles
Obamania
Obamacracy
Obamanon
Obamalypse

 

Filed under  //   dictionary   friend   funemployed   intexticated   oxford   social media   unfriend  
Posted November 16, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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How do Arabic domain names look? Egypt first to apply for Arabic domain بحب.مصر

Egypt to apply for first Arabic domain name

By TAREK EL-TABLAWY (AP) – 1 day ago

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt — Egypt will apply for the first Internet domain written in Arabic, its information technology minister said Sunday at a conference grouping Yahoo's co-founder and others to discuss boosting online access in emerging nations.

Tarek Kamel said Egypt on Monday would apply for the new domain — pronounced ".masr" but written in the Arabic alphabet — making it the first Arab nation to apply for a non-Latin character domain. The effort is part of a broader push to expand both access and content in developing nations, where the Internet remains out of reach for wide swaths of the population.

The registering of the domain "will offer new avenues for innovation, investment and growth, and hence we can truly and gladly say ... the Internet now speaks Arabic," Kamel said at the start of the Internet Governance Forum — a U.N.-sponsored gathering that drew Net legends like Yahoo Inc.'s Jerry Yang and Tim Berners-Lee, known as one of the Internet's founding fathers.

"It is a great moment for us," Kamel said of the domain name, which translates as ".Egypt".

The new domains stem from a decision taken at the end of October by the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a key Internet oversight agency, to develop a "fast-track" mechanism for domain names in languages such as Chinese, Korean, Arabic and others that do not use the Latin alphabet.

The decision marks a key step in the Arab world, where a mixture of censorship, limited content and access have stymied efforts to boost Arabic-language content on the Web.

The dearth of content has opened new market opportunities for Internet companies, with Yahoo, for example, recently acquiring Arab online community Web site

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Woho for Egypt but now what? Will the government start using these domains just like we do here in the US with .gov? I think that's a start to show commitment form the Egyptian government to this.

I do though recognize how difficult it this will be on many apps/engines on the web that are use Latin alphabet. I guess this is an evolutionary step on the web.

Google's Eric Schmidt interview on the Future of web saying that Five years from now the internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHxub_yQfig

So how do Arabic domain names will look like? Well, first Egypt in Arabic is three letters (not sure how many bits this is) but it would look like
مصر
Now you might not know but it's written from right to left so the following are examples of to be registered domain names:
تاريخ.مصر
وزارةالثقافة.مصر
اتصالات.مصر
(in order, History.Egypt, CultureMinistry.Egypt, TeleCommunications.Egypt)

Filed under  //   Arabic   Domains   Egypt   icaan   مصر  
Posted November 16, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
// 1 Comment

Gaining influence on Twitter. Tips and a new tool by Edelman

The Basics – Get personal and be real

Username: Choosing the right username is important – there’s no harm in using your actual name of course, providing someone else hasn’t taken it already! If your desired username has been taken, choose something that reflects you and how you’ll try to use your Twitter account. There’s no harm in being totally professional, but a little bit of character will make you seem more human.

Picture: Upload an image of yourself – preferably nothing too risqué! A nice simple headshot will do the trick, it makes communicating that little bit more personal. Alternatively, you can create your own cartoon avatar and customise it to make it look how you wish!

Bio: Write a short bio including who you work for and what your interests are. This will help tweeple (Twitter people) find you as well as giving them information about why they should follow you once you start tweeting.

Protected Updates: Privacy online is a hot topic and will continue to be so as long as your personal information is deemed valuable, and it is tempting to hide your updates to just your immediate friends. However, on Twitter if you’ve got something to hide people will want to know why and they will be cautious about following you, if not put off altogether! 

Website: Include your blog if you have one, this helps to make you more ‘real’ to anyone who comes across your profile. You can also link to a LinkedIn or Facebook profile, or even your Flickr page.

Copy adapted from Twitter User Guide created by @geetarchurchy from Edelman

Edelman launched TweetLevel a tool that checks your twitter account's influence, popularity, engagement and trust. There are lots of these tools out there, but what was far more interesting to me was the Tips page. Which assumes you want to increase your influence on twitter.

What's startling the home page of the big PR agency Edelman had the TweetLevel tool in as an interstitial page.

Filed under  //   brand   Edelman   influence   social media   tips   twitter  
Posted November 16, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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What does your facebook profile photo say about you?

In this photo, on the right the subject shows more relaxed stance,
emotionally stable, open and likeable, the researchers found.

"Scientists have known physical appearance is important for first impressions and that such initial impressions can be hard to undo, particularly negative ones. Studies have shown judgments made at first glance of a CEO can predict his or her success. But until now little was known about how well people judged personality based on appearance and what physical factors are most important.

In the new study, 12 observers looked at full-body photos of 123 undergraduate students who they had never met before. Six observers viewed the students in a neutral pose and six saw the same students in a spontaneous pose.

The participants rated each photo on 10 personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness (open to experience), likability, self-esteem, loneliness, religiosity and political orientation.

To figure out accuracy of the judgments, the researchers compared the results with the posers' self-ratings and ratings from three close friends.

For the controlled poses, the observers accurately judged extraversion and self-esteem. When participants looked at the naturally expressive shots, which revealed dynamic non-verbal cues, they were nearly spot-on, getting nine out of the 10 traits correct (everything but political orientation). "

For more on this article check: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091109/sc_livescience/postingpicsonlinewhatyourphotossayaboutyou

By the way, interesting shirt. Wonder where this study was conducted...

Filed under  //   facebook   personality   Photo   portriat   study  
Posted November 10, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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Brooklyn borough bucked tide: Class, financial issues led voters' gripes about Mayor Bloomberg

BY Jake Pearson, Mike Mcloughlin AND Elizabeth Hays
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Thursday, November 5th 2009, 4:00 AM

Mayor Michael Bloomberg talks to reporters as he arrives at City Hall the day after the election.
Hagen for News
Mayor Michael Bloomberg talks to reporters as he arrives at City Hall the day after the election.

Mayor Bloomberg may have squeaked out a third term across the city - but if it was up to Brooklyn voters he would have been tossed out.

In the Borough of Kings, Controller William Thompson trounced Millionaire Mike by nearly 6 percentage points, more than Bloomberg's victory margin citywide, preliminary election results show.

Bloomberg's dismal showing highlights widespread frustration in the borough - particularly among black voters - and shows that Bloomberg has his work cut out for him in his next term, voters and analysts said.

"He's not in touch with people here," said Cee Allah, 45, of Bedford-Stuyvesant - where Bloomberg lost to Thompson by a whopping 10,502 votes, the largest margin in Brooklyn.

"With Giuliani it was racial - but Bloomberg's a billionaire, so you know it's class," added Allah, an airport worker and father of three.

After Bed-Stuy - Thompson's home turf - Bloomberg's biggest losses came in Fort Greene and Prospect Heights, and in East Flatbush, Canarsie and Brownsville, all black or Caribbean strongholds.

Bloomberg also did poorly in parts of southern Brooklyn, such as Mill Basin and Bergen Beach, where he lost by 301 votes.

"The mayor has a lot of fence-mending to do," said City Councilman Lou Fidler (D-Bergen Beach), a Thompson supporter. "He has to understand the anger of people who are tired of all the rate increases."

In 2005, Bloomberg clobbered Fernando Ferrer in Brooklyn by 19 points, mirroring his citywide landslide win. But in 2001, when Bloomberg was first elected, he lost Brooklyn by 7 percentage points, while notching a 2-point win citywide.

This year, Brooklyn's tightest mayoral contest was in Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, where Thompson won by a mere 148 votes amid an anemic 17% turnout.

Political analyst George Arzt said the tight split in the heavily Latino area shows that Bloomberg needs to focus more on minorities - especially since Bloomberg had strong Latino support in past elections.

"He needs to do more to get back where he was," said Arzt.

Alex Maldonado, 39, of Sunset Park voted for Bloomberg but said many of his neighbors pulled the lever for Thompson. "A lot people in this neighborhood are poor and Thompson understands that," he said.

Bloomberg's campaign downplayed his weak support in certain areas and said the mayor "is going to talk to Brooklynites to continue his record of progress and results."

Bloomberg's biggest support in the borough came from Sheepshead Bay and among the Jewish electorate in Borough Park and Kensington. He also did well in Republican-friendly Bay Ridge.

"He runs the city like a good business," said Bay Ridge shopkeeper Alex Voynar, 56.

I can't believe Bay Ridge is still republican...I agree with Alex that Bloomberg runs the city like a good business but That's NOT what the city needs we need the city to be run as a CITY!

Filed under  //   bay ridge   bloomberg   brooklyn   Daily News   elections   mayor   NYC   republican  
Posted November 5, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
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2010 Census with no option for Arab

I hope every Arab American would check Other and write in Arab. Special Thanks to NAAP Chicago Chapter President Morad Askar for the work you are doing in Chicago.

Filed under  //   2010   Arab   Arab American   form   NAAP   screenshot   US Census  
Posted November 4, 2009 by Mido Aboshihata 
// 1 Comment