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

Quote of the Moment

This time I'm writing a couple of tweets I found interesting during & after Egypt-Algeria (2-0) match:

• A New Chronicle The Game Night http://bit.ly/3fOBfx --Zeinobia
• Algerian bravery can be seen through the algerian guy playing with a medical band on his head. Respect... --Reemba (جزائرية)
• راكب المترو وقاعد لوحدي في العربية كلها... قشطة --Ahmed_ali
• Montenegro-Israel 1:0 - wonderful! --Ruslantrad
• اذا وداعا كأس العالم --Salem309 (شكله كان فقد الامل خلاص)
• The bombs which set fire to Egypt fans should be lit at the house of Mubarak --Ruslantrad
• I don't think any of you guys had ever tweeted so much in 90 minutes. --MissKhasawneh
• الاحتفالات وصلت الرياض بيب بيب بيب هيا الجالية بتحتفل فين عشان نروح :D --HaNaDy
• جمال الثورة والسادات أكتوبر وأبويا أول طلعة جوية وانا حضرت ماتش الجزائر --PresidentGamal
• a strange thought. I haven't seen anyone from the muslim brotherhood in those celebration protests with real eg lovers. wondering why? -- remon_z (بيصطاد في المية العكرة)

I LOVE Gollum

Gollum, from the “Lord of the ring” trilogy (I’m afraid I never read the book, only watched the movies :$), is one of the really 3D characters I like the most. & I don’t mean 3D like in Graphics :D. I mean not the kind of “black or white” (yabyad yaswed :D) guys you see on most movies.. It’s a real “human” in someway with all the bad & good urges that we goes through.
Through out the trilogy you can never say whether he’s bad or good, a victim or a devil..
I specially like this part of the movie were his “good (or may be passive) part is talking to his bad one..

Another really dear thing from the movies to my heart is “Gollum’s song” which is kinda “لسان حال ”  Gollum.. The song which is performed by Emiliana Torrini, great lyrics by Fran Walsh & magnificent music (actually I love all the trilogy music) composed by Howard Shore is taking about these urges I was talking about before, fighting on his head & through his life (or should I say ours?).. Check it, below, too :)

I just realized that both videos on YouTube have almost the same “cover pix” (one good Gollum & one bad) :D

Quote of the Moment

"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are.

It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?

But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.

But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't.

They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."

-- Sam, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Wondering about Project Managers

I had a couple of issues lately with a PM (Project Manager) at work which made me ask myself a couple of questions & wonder what others might be thinking of it.. I'll give my humble opinion here to start a conversation, coz I badly wanna here how others would answer them.

• Should PMs know/ask much about technical decisions?
  
  • IMHO, I thing the answer is NO!! PMs should be asking for less fine details like what's the estimations for doing that option or so.. But they shouldn't be asking why we are using X, or Y technology/approach to tackle a problem.
  
  

• In an agile process, where should PMs stand? What exactly is their Role? Should there be PMs in agile in the first place? Or Should they be replaced by a PO (Product Owner), or -may be- a Scrum Master?
  
  • That's a question that really confuses me a lot.. I can't give a definite answer.. Should they replace POs.. Hmm. I guess not.. On one hand, a PO should be the one directing the project, knowing what the customer want.. But still, a PO -probably- should have some technical background.. So according to my answer to the previous question, PMs can't replace POs..
  • On the other hand, Replacing a Scrum Master, is a bit too far for PMs, Scrum Master are supposed to be in favor of the development team, ie a facilitator & protector for the dev team; & PMs are notorious of failing to do so.. :D
  • Another option -that just came to me right now- is PMs replacing customer in environments where it's difficult to involve the customer.
  
  

I'm desperately waiting for your answers to either of the above questions.. I'm really confused & don't have enough knowledge actually to answer them.
I might be adding other questions but for now that's what is on my mind..
Cross posted on FCIH blog