1. I watch whatever the hell I wanna watch on TV

No dad to flip to his beloved Zamalek match against Toob el Ard (usually Toob el Ard wins and I end up with a grumpy dad for the rest of the dad), no mom to watch cooking channels all day (she can cook anything FFS, why is she still learning new stuff), I can watch Shaun of the Sheep and there’s nobody to complain about it (except the wife, but she’s not of a TV person anyways).

As a matter of fact, I don’t have all those sports channels set up on my satellite receiver.

2. I can play whatever I want on PlayStation

I used to play on the only big-screen TV at my parents’ place, and whenever any of them passed by me while playing, I would get me a comment like “ebny 3ando 25 sana w lesa byl3ab ATARI”, so I ended up playing my favorite games only after midnight, when old people fall asleep. Now, I can play my games, I can invite people over, a whole new experience for me.

3. I can wear whatever the hell I want

Including wearing nothing at all, or that old worn-out t-shirt that I love but my mother always complains when she sees me wearing it.

4. I can eat what I want, when I want

No holy meal times, no foods that the mom n dad love but I’m forced to eat ‘em because they’re good for peeps my age.

5. My own bedroom

I sleep whenever I want, wake up whenever I want, wear whatever I want to bed, set the AC to the lowest freezing temperature with no one to complain about me killing myself.

6. Smoking

No more smoking in the bathroom, no more smoking when the dad is not around, no more smoking and saying a friend was smoking not me. I can smoke weed if I want, it’s my crib

7. No “kont fen yabny le7ad delwa2ty 3andak sho3′l el sob7″

8. No “yabny marina di b3eed awy khaleeha el osboo3 el gay”

9. No “hat 3eesh b semsem wenta mrawa7″

Of course on the other hand you’re stuck with all the other chores that your dad used to do without you having to worry about them

1. “kol shahr wenta tayeb ya beh” <– the monthly salary you pay the doorman, otherwise, you have to go to work with your car looking like it’s been through a nuclear war.

2. Electrical bills, natural gas bills, landline bills, internet bills, mobile bills for the wife and me, grocery bills, breathing bills, staying-alive-bills.

3. Changing all the lightbulbs that blow up all the time.

but all-in-all werak el 3eesha f beet ahly.

Is it money? a lot of people say no.

Is it career choices? a lot of people say no.

Is it personal relationships? a lot of people say no.

Is it the car you drive? a lot of people say no.

The questions can go on forever, and if the answer to all those questions is no, then what’s the right KPI – Key Performance Indicator – to life. I’m tended to believe the answer to life is 42, but even 42, is it a good 42?

I have been evaluating all that’s been going on around my life for the past couple of years, and I’m tended to think of everything as a failure, on the other hand, people around me are saying that I’ve been dealt a good hand, but I can’t see that, what is a good hand anyways? what is a good package as a dear friend of mine keeps saying? I can’t think of anything right now, but as time passes, I tend to think that I don’t get enough, and what I get, I don’t deserve or can’t keep.

So the question that I can’t answer now, how can someone achieve self-satisfaction? and isn’t self-satisfaction a dangerous thing? I mean, if you’re satisfied with how you’re doing right now, don’t you lose motivation to keep fighting for a jump ahead in the world?

I’m opening this post for debate,  fee free to fill that comments section with whatever you can say on the subject.

So you might have seen some photos, read some reviews, you might even have seen the sticker on your new laptop saying that it can handle Windows 7, but you went ahead and installed Windows XP, why? well here is a souple of reasons why you might want to do that:

1. Money:

The root of all evil, you don’t want to buy the license.

2. You don’t own your own computer:

Yes, some people have company assets and do not control what Windows they have on it.

3. He who abandons his old habits…. gets lost (Meen fat 2adeemo tah)

The Answer:

Get a first-hand experience on how Windows 7 looks and feels like, of course you will still have to read about the features under the hood in blogs and wikis, but at least you will get the look and feel.

How is it done, it’s all free actually, all you need to do is take a very calculated risk.

1. Create a System Restore Point:

Make it a habit, always create system restore points before you install shapeshifting software.

Just go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore

2. Download Windows XP Transformation pack:

Found Here, these people have put together a bunch of software pieces that go deep within the core of Windows XP, modifying it, tweaking it, making it look and feel like Windows 7.

3. Install the downloaded transformation pack:

Just install the package you just downloaded, and you’re set to go, here’s my Windows XP after installation, just make sure you check the box so that the intro screen for the transformation pack.

Of course I can’t stress enough on creating a restore point first, and if you want the full thing, install it, it’s worth it in every way.

These guys discovered a cure for cancer… beer

I really don’t know the origin of this photo, but I had to share it

and for all you Iron Man fans out there, here’s the official trailer

Tony Stark, a guy with electric power-whips, boobs, samuel L Jackson, who’d want more, he’s even got the whole suit in a briefcase.

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, it has finally happened, yours truly has seen the light and moved my non-business related activities to a Windows 7 machine.

How did this happen you might ask, here’s the complete walkthrough:

1. Get a copy of Windows 7 (I don’t care how or where you got it)

2. Get a copy of VMWare (Probably from the same place you got your version of Windows)

3. Go to the nearest RadioShack and get yourself an External HDD (preferably with loads of free space)

4. Install WMWare

5. Setup a copy of Windows 7 on a virtual machine

6. Make sure your host machine has at least 3GB of RAM (mine has 4)

Now what I did is, I have all my business related apps on the host machine (simply because I can’t install all those lotus apps on the virtual machine), and all the fun apps (Chrome, MSN, etc.) on the virtual machine, so when I’m having fun, I’m having fun on something that actually looks like fun.

Now to Win7 itself:

Looks:

It looks great, a lot neater and a lot lighter than the dreadful Vista. It simply amazes you on how it just behaves as you would expect something that came out last year to behave, you do something completely stupid (like when I wanted to organize the open programs on the taskbar) and it actually does what you expected it to do, it listens to you.

It has lots of themes, and the one I like the most is this theme where the desktop background changes every hour or so, it really send you a feeling of being refreshed, or maybe it’s just me gaping jaw against all the neatness and uber geekness of the theme.

Running Speed:

It runs like the wind, even on a virtual machine that has XPSP3 as the host, it is extremely fast and responsive, I already feel sleeker and more productive. Although when I put it under stress, the graphics started to flutter, and eventually I had to restart it, but that was probably due to a setback in the virtual machine.

Apps:

I still haven’t installed a lot of apps on it (I just installed the whole thing yesterday) and so far it’s doing great

I installed MSN Messenger, Microsoft Office 2007, MagicISO Virtual Driver Manager, Vodafone Mobile Connect, Skype (Skype refused to connect while I connected with Vodafone USB), and of course BitLord.

Credit goes to this page for inspiring me.

Take a look at this Godly creation (Allahoma la e3terad)

It’s called a Platypus, and it’s as ugly as my tummy after a bad meal. It’s a mammal in the sense that it feeds it’s kids milk, but get this, it lays eggs, so it’s a bird too, or a freakin’ dinosaur, it has claws and tails from a beaver, it can swim and stay underwater, and it has the beak of  a duck.

So, the beaver accounts for the swimming and claws, tail and breastfeeding, and the duck accounts for the beak and the egg-laying. It also has some predator characteristics from a lizard.

So,I’m open for suggestions on how this

And this:

And this

End up in the same bed

I started work last Friday, only to be faced with problems from day one, a non-responsive server just refusing to let me in, I started a series of fixes that lead to the server answering my calls on Saturday morning.

Saturday 6:00PM, I had all the documentation I needed and set off to implement the required solution, with high hopes that work can be done by Monday.

Sunday 8:00PM I had all the pieces in place (or so I thought) and was determined to finish testing, and start working on the look-and-feel of my new shiny baby, and finish ahead of schedule, a hero in the eyes of my managers.

Sunday 6:00PM nothing works, I can’t logon to the application I just developed, I can’t get it to show my work, nothing seems to be in place. I went to sleep at 8:30AM Monday morning, too tired to keep trying, I intended to start fresh on Monday, after all, I know how it’s done now.

Monday 11:00AM I get a call from my direct manager for this project asking about his work, my news were bad, and he was supportive enough not to get on my nerves, but he delivered his point, I should get back to work, so 11:30AM, I was back at my screen.

Some research led me to the fact that the documentation I had was old, that the new system version had further requirements that should be done by me before being transferred to a production server. I had already finished implementation, so I had to retrace my steps back to the beginning, patching new stuff everywhere.

Wednesday 9:00AM I’m still awake and the server has become intolerably slow, so I decide what the hell? restart the mofo, and that restart was a big mistake, the server won’t let me in again, try as I might, I just can’t get it to respond to me. I call people, post on forums, begging for help, but nothing seems to work for me, I was desperate.

Midnight Thursday my server answers me, and I’m back on track, patching, digging deep into queries written by big developers, and I patch my work, then my laptop dies on me.

I fall asleep Thursday at 8:00AM and wake up at 10:00AM by a ringing phone, people are pushing for results, I suffer to get the laptop working, the server operational, and my work online, I had to reset a lot of work and re-do it because of the power loss thing, but it works after.

Friday Midnight, I send my demo off to be published, and I get a thank you call from my manager who was very supportive all the way.

What lessons did I learn last week:

1. GOD:

Always keep him in your thoughts, never, for one second, think that he’s not watching over you. deeply, and with a caring eye. I was crying my heart out over not being able to deliver on-time. My wife sits next to me and says “God will not leave you alone”, I start praying, put myself at ease with words of the Holy Quran, and things start working. It’s like a magic wand, a slow answer to my prayers, a tangling plate of spaghetti slowly unwinding, testing me, watching if I will turn my back on God when my work is done.

I failed, miserably, for more than once I found myself almost back to square one because I forgot who should be asked for forgiveness, for being there with me, for being my hand and my eyes in a time when all the technology in the world failed my time after time. I came back to God, asking for His forgiveness and kindness, and He was there for me, patting me on the back, giving me small Godly nudges in the right directions. Thank you Allah, you have been with me, and I am henceforth, your loyal subject for life.

2. Keep your eyes open:

All of my problems during last week, all of them, were small things hidden between tons of code and configuration files, never take lightly the effect of a small configuration file being corrupt. Always read your documentation line for line, never assume that you understand what’s being said just by skimming through a document, grasping the general idea, always read and understand every word.

3. The power of having people by your side:

I stayed awake for almost a whole week, I can’t fall asleep now, my body is accustomed to long hours on my computer, and you know how I stayed awake for a week, it’s because of my loyal wife and friends, Noha, my beautiful wife, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Fayed Yousry, thank you my brother from another mother, Amira Saad, thanks for putting a smile on a face that had tears on it, Ahmed Khafagy, you’re a wonderful manager, I hope that someday I can begin to walk in your footsteps, Samar Sadat, thanks for not pushing my buttons, and being there when I needed you, Islam Helmy, thank you for picking me up when I needed that, driving me around town for food and refreshment, Kareem Badr, thank you my fellow hulk,Tamer Mahfouz, Mom and dad, and every single person who’s been with me for the course of last week. I hope I didn’t forget anybody, you all know how bad my memory is.

I was weak, but I came out strong, I almost gave up, but I didn’t, I dug deep into my soul and mind, and came out victorious, good work never goes to waste.

I know a lot of you might think I’m blowing this out of proportion, but for me, last week has been epic, it pushed me to my physical and mental limits, and I came through, and for that I’m happy, grateful, Al-Hamdullilah, and in the words of my favorite anime character, Kurosaki Ichigo of Bleach… BANKAI!!