FCIH Initiative family call for new members

FCIH initiative is group of FCIH graduates who are interested in passing their experience & knowledge to FCIH students. The kick off was on 7 November 2009; during these two years, we managed to hold number of sessions and  Java training.

We think of the initiative as our role towards the society and as a chance to help others find their way in life. Currently, we are hoping to add new members to FCIH  initiative family. Kindly, if you are interested, take a few minutes to fill  this form, if you are already a member please fill the form as well.

Please, feel free to spread the word to other FCIH graduates who might be interested.

#Vodafone #Buzz #Fail

I was online through my favorite IM client; Google Talk, when a work-colleague started talking to me, asking me:

دا ايميل مين انا تعبت رابع ايميل يفتح غلط

I am using Vodafone Buzz from my mobile. Get it now for free from http://vf.eg/buzz

After talking for a while, I realized he was a total stranger; not my colleague. He's another user of Vodafone Buzz, like my colleague. The issue was that every time he signs in to Google Talk (using Vodafone Buzz), he signs in with my colleague's account. As far as I remember, Buzz associates your Vodafone number with the passwords you supply for your social networking sites (likes Facebook, Gmail , etc) so you don't have to type them every time you fire up the app.

If that was not scary enough, I'd just direct your attention to the fact: that stranger is not intending harm, (he's not a hacker for eg, or even evil enough to abuse the situation, he probably lack technical expertise too) so I'm expecting a disaster if he intended!! That if he was the only case of compromised password!!

Conclusion: If you're using Vodafone Buzz, just don't! And more importantly: UPDATE EVERY PASSWORD YOU'VE EVER SHARED WITH VODAFONE!

Side note: Thank GOD I don't save my credit card number on their website!!

Power to the people!

Earlier this week, I posted about Vodafone Ad showing a distorted version of Abbas Ibn Fernas (check it here). Finally today, Vodafone issued an apology on their Facebook page. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but they are promising to stop airing it on TV, too, soon (I won't listen to the "conspiracy theory" roaming in my head now).

Some people suggest that: nobody really watches ads on TV any more. But I'm kind of reluctant to accept it. Many "regular" people, who aren't familiar with Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc (my dad, & granddad generation, also, people with less education/social status) usually depend heavily on TV as their main source of entertainment.

One last thing, I just realized I didn't publish an important link on the last post, which was really the main pillar behind the campaign, this is vodafly.tumblr.com. Actually I'm very eager to use tumblr for similar stuff, it allows great collaboration for similar usages.

THANKS FOR STANDING TOGETHER, GUYS!!

FCIH Initiative Updates

Finally we are glad to announce the launch of

FCIH Initiative Program

On Next Sunday 25/7/2010 at FCI-Helwan

Join our great event; Join a group of carefully selected sessions highly needed in your practical life.

Event Schedule:

Day 1 [Sunday: 25-7-2010]: Let's get started
10:00	10:30	Orientation
10:30	12:30	Object Oriented Blocks
12:30	01:00	Break
01:00	02:30	Good Code
02:30	03:00	Break
03:00	04:00	English for Business
Day 2 [Monday: 26-7-2010]: Develop your path
10:00	11:30	Web Development A – Z
11:30	12:00	Break
12:00	02:00	Software Quality Engineering
02:00	02:30	Break
02:30	04:00	CV Writing and interviewing skills
Day 3 [Wednesday: 28-7-2010]: IT, World of Endless Choices
10:00	11:00	GIS: Geographic information system
11:00	12:00	CMS: Content Management System
12:00	12:30	Break
02:00	02:30	BI: Business Intelligence
02:30	03:30	RIA: Rich Internet Application
Day 4 [Thursday: 29-7-2010]: Into the business world
10:00	01:00	Agile Software Development
01:00	01:30	Break
01:30	3:00	Understanding Business Analysis
03:00	04:30	Global / Local IT Market
04:30	05:00	Closing

Don't miss the chance…..and don't forget our date "25/7/2010" at FCI-Helwan.

Waiting you there :)

Find more about the event here:
Mail: FCIH [dot] Initiative [at] fcih [dot] net
Website: http://www.helwan.edu.eg:90/fcih/details.asp?id=161
               http://www.helwan.edu.eg:90/fcih/details.asp?id=162
FaceBook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128813070490801

FCIH Initiative

Don't wait the chance, Create it

Thinking about your future? Worried about your career?

Thinking that you're far away from real market life and limited by your academic life?

All are talking about financial crises? Need a solution?

Want to be professional but don't know where to start?

Interested to know how do people work and deliver their projects?

Need to gain experience in market? Need to know about Egyptian IT market?

So FCIH Initiative is now here for you

Our goal is you, preparing for you, planning for you.

This summer, we'll be together to make your dreams come true.

To bridge your academic study and your career

To make you start the right planning for your career from now

Join us and enjoy:

Trainings – Research – business experience – technical knowledge – English Club - and more….

FCIH initiative program will start on 17-7, so don't miss the chance.

We're planning to provide:

·        Technical sessions

·        Training program in 3 tracks (java, .net, and PHP)

·        Sessions talking about market, and adding to your personal skills.

·        Program for those who are interested in research.

·        Soft skills program.

·        English club.

Contacts:

Mail: FCIH.Initiative@fcih.net

Website: http://www.helwan.edu.eg:90/fcih/details.asp?id=161

FaceBook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128813070490801&ref=mf

My mentor profile on #ImagineCup updated!

Mohamed Samy has been tweeting a lot lately about ImagineCup, asking people to sign up as mentors & support the Egyptian teams. So, I’m posting this to let you know that I’ve just updated my profile there. So if you’re looking for a mentor (I guess I won’t be useful except in software design competition) look for my profile under the name “Shady M. Najib”.

Along the way, I’m inviting you too, to join ImagineCup both as mentors and competitor, it was & will be a great experience, that one thing you should be sure of.

One last thing I should says here, is that I realized while updating my profile that I set my “Notify me of new private messages” status to “No” which kept a couple of messages off my radar. So please guys & gals, pardon me, that wasn’t intended! :$ I’ll be more attentive next time :)

PS.: remember to check Egypt Local website: http://imaginecupegypt.com/

Petitions!!

Today I came across a couple of petitions,

ScottGutoME & #iWantScottGuInCairoCamp:

The first one was about asking Scott Gu to be there on Tech·Ed ME 2010 in Dubai..

After tweeting about it, Meligy & I started a convo about it, which lead to a kinda another petition for Cairo Code Camp 2010, so go on retweet it!! :D

RT #iWantScottGuInCairoCamp if you want @scottgu to come to Egypt during #CairoCodeCamp.Make it twitter trend so that GU notices

[Ar]droid:

Another nice petition was about pushing Google to Support Arabic in Android, which is a nice petition from a user perspective, but kinda lame speaking as a developer & taking into consideration that Android is (mostly) open source.. Arab Developer community need to get more involved.. not to just "ask for Arabic support"!!

Another funny thing is that most of the comments on the issue on Android Google Code project is that almost all the comments are in pure English.. For God sake, dudes!! Google has “Google Translate”!! :D

Yet, speaking about ROI (for Google), Arabic Language is spoken by more than 280 million people as a first language, and by 250 million more as a second language.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language

Fix Arabic Google Translation

Go to ‎http://translate.google.com/ translate "اسرائيلي يقتل فلسطينيا" from Arabic to English, then "اسرائيلي يقتل فرنسيا"!! The 1st is translated "Israeli killed by Palestinians" and the 2nd "Israeli killed Frenchman"!!

Please share & Contribute a right translation!!

Open letter from Egyptians and Algerians on football row

Copied from Bikya Masr
Sign the petition: http://www.algypt.com/


From Egyptian and Algerian intellectuals, bloggers and activists:
Common Decision.. Won’t separate..
In the name of Allah the most merciful,
In terms of history, religion, Arabism, humanity and the principles of ethics:
We, the undersigned, agree to this statement on the spirit and content at the current time in which we are in greatest need for the voice of reason and conscience and to rise above the pettiness and nonsense things. If not in the name of Arabism and Islam and the cross ties of geography and history, at least on behalf of common interests and mutual understanding that we are trying to make off with the other west, let alone “the other Arab!”
At a time when the elite has failed to take the leadership of public opinion, and some of them fell in the exam, and it appeared that all songs of Arabism and unity that they presented was from the womb of hypocrisy except a few .. Then the scene was left to the non-professionals and bad opinion makers to mislead people and engage them in unnecessary issues. It is therefore better for us to take the lead. And sign this statement of principle for all of us to drive up the skirmish immoral

See you on EED

I’m planning to be on EED next Monday isA.. Probably, I’d be there all day.. checking the projects, attending a couple of sessions, attending the closing ceremony (Hoping for some “BOOOM, BOOOM, BOOM, HELWAN!!” :D) & hopefully meeting up with some of FCIH old & new folks..
BTW, EED is starting tomorrow, I’m just too lazy to go tomorrow :D.. Also for the working gals.. Egypt WIE, are doing there first forum about “Work-life Balance” on the EED this year too.. I’m wondering why it’s still called Egyptian Engineering Day :D..
So meet you there folks..

Tribute to Marwa

This post has been updated alot since I first wrote it.. so please excuse my lack of organization :)

---

First, let me announce that a site is in the making (I'm not involved in anyway, (hopefully) "yet") in the memory of Marwa.. The site is MarwaElSherbiny.com

NOTE: Remember you can always use Google Language tools to translate the pages 

News:
Egypt funeral for stabbing victim: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/07/20097612424648553.html
Egypt mourns 'headscarf martyr': http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8136500.stm
The headscarf martyr: murder in German court sparks Egyptian fury: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/07/german-trial-hijab-murder-egypt
Burial of the Egptian woman racially killed in Germany (Arabic): http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/worldnews/2009/07/090705_ah_racist_attack_germany-tc2.shtml
Egyptians angry over German court slaying (6 Days late, check their summary to the incidence in the “Story Highlights” section!!): http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/06/egypt.woman.killed/index.html Islamophobia victim was pregnant, body arrives from Germany: http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=22902
The German Embassy is Following up on Marwa El-Sherbini Killing; Her Family to Take Body Back to Egypt Today: http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=217708
Marwa killed due to propaganda against Muslims (Arabic): http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/66B429F4-7E40-4325-9751-0434271DB1C2.htm
Egyptian woman killed in German court for being veiled (One of the best I’ve read, IMHO): http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/07/06/egyptian-woman-killed-in-german-court-for-being-veiled/
Marwa’s Husband emerged from the coma to the news of her death .. He was in tears that he wasn’t able to save her: http://www.shorouknews.com/ContentData.aspx?id=70500

Blogs:
Her only crime was the veil, Anderson Cooper 360° (Again was too late several days – 10-11 – & strangely the incidence data is not exactly right) : http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/10/her-only-crime-was-the-veil/
A murder that Germany ignored: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/10/germany-murder-marwa-sherbini
Marwa. Mainstream Media Fail? AGAIN? (this guy said it all): http://fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com/2009/07/marwa-mainstream-media-fail-again.html
What If She Were A Lesbian: http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-if-she-were-lesbian.html
The west should be more reasonable (Arabic):http://www.lastoadri.com/2009/07/blog-post.html

Is this is the German democracy? In its (Germany) courtrooms, Muslims are being attacked: http://www.sadafat.com/?p=562
I hate everything about You!: http://blog.hichamaged.net/i-hate-everything-about-you/
Not Fair!!!!: http://lebnights.blogspot.com/2009/07/not-fair.html
Marwa El-Sherbany came back again to Egypt !!!: http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/07/marwa-el-sherbany-came-back-again-to.html
All the links from Bikya Masr; allegedly the first blog to report the incidence: http://bikyamasr.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/bm-news-all-bikya-masr-links-on-marwa-killing/ 
Marwa Al-Sherbini: Killed For Wearing A Headscarf But At What Point Do We Say “Enough”?: http://www.black-iris.com/2009/07/07/marwa-al-sherbini-killed-for-wearing-a-headscarf-but-at-what-point-do-we-say-enough/

Pix:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahmedcarlos/tags/%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A9%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A/
http://alexhopealex.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post.html
http://alexhopealex.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_06.html
http://alexhopealex.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_223.html

Vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lSmIcEbCHQ (English)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8tZtBrZH6s (Arabic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tw6fhdeol8 (Arabic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3keduYo5sBo (Arabic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B5hmOE6EQM (Arabic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m0h_ZpGKWQ (Arabic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bwkxscz4Dqw (Arabic) 

Check twitter (trends) for more:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Marwa
http://twist.flaptor.com/trends?gram=Marwa&span=168

Please join the Petition:   http://petol.org/marwa
& keep spreading the word about Marwa.. On twitter please use #Marwa coz it’s the shortest & most commonly used hash tag used there about Marwa..
IMHO, most of the main stream media (most of the news section above) not only reported the incidence too late (even Arabic speaking news agencies), but also reported mainly (or focused on) the Egyptian reaction as if it’s irrational without much mentioning of the racist act that caused that reaction!

Community Calender

FCIH bloggers started a public calendar under the name: Community Events Calendar. It will be focused mainly on the Egyptian IT Community. A glimpse of the calendar is here below:

Also you can subscribe to calendar in many other ways, for eg the HTML version here:

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=a4lgh95ric33n590179795q0k4%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Africa/Cairo

Or in iCal format that can be feed to Outlook or Apple iCal, etc :

http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/a4lgh95ric33n590179795q0k4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Also, as XML feed:

http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/a4lgh95ric33n590179795q0k4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic

The calendar will include offline IT community Events held around Egypt. Also, online events both from Egypt (hopefully there will be, someday :)) & around the world.

Please, feel free to contact us (FCIH bloggers) or comment on this post, notifying us of events that need to be added to the calendar. Also, any ideas to improve it are much appreciated :)

Cross-posted from FCIH-Blog

Microsoft Innovation Day Material

I'm just collecting here as much as I can of the material of the sessions presented on MS Innovation day (last April 22 nd), I'll be updating the list whenever I can:

• Marwan Tarek (EgySUG) - JQuery & SharePoint:
• http://www.sharepointblogs.com/marwantarek/archive/2009/04/23/innovation-day-brief.aspx
• http://cid-c1a57db9e93baf80.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/MS%20Innovation%20day%20April%202009

• Remon Zakaria (DNW) - Oslo: http://blogs.dashsoft.com/Remon/Default/09-04-24/Logging_your_expenses_using_Oslo_SDK.aspx
• Mostafa Siraj (Cutting-Edge) - CSRF: http://allaboutapplicationsecurity.blogspot.com/2009/04/csrf-session-at-microsoft-innovation.html

dotNetWork.org April09 gathering

First thing to say, please don't mix this event with Microsoft Innovation day organized by MSFT jointly with almost every Egyptian UGs.. I'll be blogging about that later..

This month we are a bit earlier than usual (or should I say we are late for last month gathering? :D).. The gathering will be on April 18th (next Saturday)..

Concerning the venue, this gathering we will try a new thing, we will hold it at Fridays, City Stars.. This is a bit limiting so this time our maximum count of attendees will be around 60.. Also there's a special-priced menu for DNW.. So if (only if) you're interested & your schedule is free next Saturday from 10:00-13:00.. Please register..

So to know if you're interested The speakers are

Hossam Kamel
Senior Software Engineer - ESRI, Northeast Africa

Mohamed Samir
Technical Lead - Timeline Interactive, Inc.

Concerning the agenda:

10:15 - 11:15	Testing automation using VSTS 2008 (for Dev & QC): Lots of demos for both developers & testers..So Testing Engineers, please join us!!	Hosam Kamel
11:45 - 12:45	"CellFactor®: Psychokinetic Wars", challenges and achievements: CellFactor is first-person multiplayer shooter game, developed for PS3 and XBOX 360 by a mostly-Egyptian team.	Mohamed Samir

Btw, Guys, just to make sure it won't be understood wrong (again) Attendees will be paying for their own meals.. DNW is only organising the event :)

For more info, updates, registration http://dnkapril-emailinvite.eventbrite.com/ You can, Also, find the menu there :D

There's also a Facebook event but registration only counts on through eventbrite.. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=68200144013

Other helpful links:

Yahoo!Group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dotnetworkorg/

Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/netWorkorg/13135685545

Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2409268236

PS: I'll update the post with the poster as soon as it's ready.. isA

EgySUG Launch

Egypt SharePoint user group real launch (after a couple of sessions with DNW) is expected to be next Thursday, isA.. It will be featuring Joel Oleson. The session title is "10 Steps to Successful Deployments".. For more info, check the UG calendar..

Concerning the time & place:

18:30-21:00 @ Microsoft-Egypt, Smart Village..

Transportation will be available from in front of Masbiro mall beside Ramses Hilton, Abdel Moneim Raid Square starting from 17:15-17:30..

Attendance is free as usual.. but registration is needed here

For any further inquiries call Ebeid Soliman: 010 5064 838


PS. : Sorry for the late notice


UPDATE: There's a small meeting to be held along with the event for the preparation for a BizTalk user group, isA.. If you're interested, look for Tamer Fathy, Ebeid Soliman, or me on the event.

Wikipedia Masri!!

ذهلت من يومين لما اكتشفت انه في حد اقترح (و نفذ) مشروع ويكيبديا مصري.. ايوة!!
http://arz.wikipedia.org/
على اساس ان المصري ده لغة مستقلة.. ممكن تقرأ اكتر عن النقاشات الانتهت باقرار المشروع هنا:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Egyptian_Arabic

المصيبة كمان انه في مشروع تجريبي لي وكشيناري مصري كمان!هتلاقيه هنا!
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wt/arz/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B5%D9%81%D8%AD%D9%87_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%87

انا ناوى اعمل اقتراح لغلق الاتنين ذي ده
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_closing_projects
بس لما افضى شوية.. انا بس بكتب التدوينة دي عشان مفروس و كمان عشان لو حد همته اعلى شوية يسبقني عشان انا عارف حبالي طويلة!!

المصيبة انه اصلا مافيش في ويكيبديا مصري دي غير مقالات قليلة جدا.. طاب مابدل الهبل ده ما يساعدوا في المشروع/مجموعة الاسمها "لنكتُب في موسوعتنا.....ويكيبيديا العربية"
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26336582446

CodeCamp'09 Venue Confirmed!!

CodeCamp'09 venue will be BUE (The British University in Egypt) Campus, Cairo-Suez Desert Road, El-Sherouk City. There will be buses departing from several locations to CodeCamp. These locations will be announced soon, isA. Looking forward to seeing you there!!

CodeCamp'09 Agenda published!!

For those who aren't subscribed to the event updates, the agenda is published on the event page cc.dotnetwork.org (if it's not working you might use this url directly codecamp09.eventbrite.com) please remember to register on the page, the seats might become limted :).. The page has a RSS feed for the event updates, too. For now, the venue is BUE, but it's not yet confirmed.. I'll keep you updated with more news to come, isA..

dotNetWork.org CodeCamp'09

This time, dotNetwork is preparing for a "bigger-than-the-usual-gatherings" event. This is supposed to be dotNetwork's first major Event, with around 18 sessions, 3 tracks, split over 2 days, which are intended to be on February 19th, 20th, isA.

The agenda has a wide range of topics covering Azure, Velocity, Scrum, BizTalk, SharePoint, C# 4, VS2010, SilverLight, & many other topics.. Speakers list include Stephen Forte, Remi Caron, Marianne Van Wanrooij, Mohamed Meligy, Mohamed Samy, Yasser Makram, Mohammad Yousry, Hossam Kamel.

I'll be updating you with more soon, but for now check the event page here:

http://codecamp09.eventbrite.com/

& subscribe to its feeds for updates, also check the the Facebook event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=63066020983

This is not yet a formal announcement, so I'll be updating you with any news here, too.. so keep tuned..

dotNetWork.org Jan'09 gathering

Date:

Saturday, January 24th 2009,
12:00 - 16:30

Attendance is FREE =)

Speakers

Mohmaed Meshref

SDT | SQL Server Team

Microsoft 

Agenda

Inside SQL Server Engine!
Agenda:
12:00 - 14:00
SQL Server Architecture
◦ Protocols
◦ Relational Engine
◦ Storage Engine
◦ SQL OS
◦ Memory

14:30-16:30
Query Processing
◦ Iterators
◦ Rows Access Methods
◦ Joins
◦ Aggregation

Location:

Canadian International College, @ "El-Tagamo3 El-5ames"

Buses will be available at: Nady El-Sekka (11:00 AM - 11:30 AM)
Please be there before 11:30 coz we will leave on time..

For those who wanna keep tuned with further news about this event & other upcoming events of the dotnetwork.org user group, please check the following links:

Yahoo!Group:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dotnetworkorg/

Facebook Event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=60432032253
You'd better join the above event if you have a facebook account so we can roughly estimate the attendees count..

Facebook Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/netWorkorg/13135685545

Facebook Group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2409268236