Isam Bayazidi’s Blog

This morning I read an article in Al-Ghad (Arabic) about sacrifices made for the Adha Eid, and the hygiene problems and the scenery associated with it in the city of Amman. Living in Marj Al-Hamam made me associate the Adha Eid with the bad smell and blood on the street (sheep blood) that I saw for years at the entrance of Marj Al-Hamam, where there is a butcher store, and a temp cattle and sheep pound is set.

The good news is, this year, the 2 buildings and stores at the entrance of Marj Al-Hamam are brought to the ground, as part of the construction of the “Royal Village” that is taking place at the land of Amman International Exhibition (where Global Village was held for the last couple of years). So no blood spilled on the streets on our way to visit relatives in the Eid. Infact, I hope I won’t see any of those places around, I really can’t understand why do they insist to have them in open places where people can see it. Why not in some remote areas? Anyhow, I hope I won’t have a bloody Eid.

About Me, Jordan

First I thought I was the only one obsessed with Jordan Planet, and check the site from his mobile while away from a PC. Then I learned that Jameed tries to check it from his mobile during his long hours in the lab, and last week, Laith told me that he checks RSS feeds from his mobile. So, it was the time for Jordan Planet to be mobile friendly.

For the last hour or more, Iyas and I had been working on http://wap.jordanplanet.net (Well I did most of the work, he did the testing and feedback). We are now proud to present “JP2Go | Jordanian wisdom on the go“. The mobile version is designed to have titles only in the main page, with author names, as well, you will be able to read those posts in Jordan Planet without even the need to have their blogs support mobiles.

Now, As Iyas would like to put it “It is part of 2006 JP Surprises” .. I hope that more people than just me, Iyas, and Laith will get to use it :)

Blogging, Internet & Technology, Jordan Planet, Mobile & Handhelds

The Arabic Wikipedia had reached few days ago, which is a pretty significant event as Arabic wikipedia now joins another 35 wikipedias in different languages that are over 10,000 article in size. Now the Arabic Wikipedia had gone a long way since it started less than 2 years ago, and still have a much longer way to go. The current active contributors in the Arabic wikipedia are the ones behind it’s success. Namely Chaos, Oxydo, Uwe a , Jak, Tarawneh, and Al-Tayeb. They, as well 10s others had been the real heroes in this success.

Now, Although the arabic wikipedia could be considered rich and accurate in some fields, I think it is still far from being considered a resource. The effort needed in enriching and increasing the quality of the articles will be taking most of next year as well.

Now Arabic holds the ranking of 35 between all wikipedias when it comes to article count. I predict that by the end of 2006, it will have the rank of 25, with around 25k articles. Don’t ask me were did I get that feeling from, but this is where I see Arabic Wikipedia heading.

Internet & Technology, Wikimedia

For those of us who are using a US or Arabic keyboard, you will notice the letters QWERTY in the top row of letters in your keyboard. That makes your keyboard called QWERTY keyboard. Now there are attempts to introduce a a new keyboard system that arranges the keys ABCD instead of QWERTY.

Now here is the funny part, is why was the keyboard arranged this way? Well it goes back to the days of typewriters, where keys that could run after each other are seperated so that the “typebars” or “hammers” that press the key won’t stuck or collapse with each other. As well, it was meant to alternate keys between hands to make you type faster (although there are many single handed words such as “monopoly” and “stewardesses”.

That made me wonder what we would call the arabic keyboard ? would it be ضصثقفغ ?

Internet & Technology

I started a thread in Jordan Planet forum (click to follow) about the predictions of 2006 for Jordan Planet, please share your thoughts if you have any.

Blogging, Internet & Technology, Jordan Planet

Yesterday I was at the Ministry of Trade to query about starting a non-profit establishment or company, for one of the organizations/projects I am involved in. Entering the ministry was a nice shock, it was my first time there. The design is very customer-service oriented, around 50 counters, with LED displays above each stating the status of the counter, and the number of the ticket it is serving, and seats. There was 2 ticket machines, with touch LCDs for different categories and so on. I was impressed. Read more…

About Me, Jordan

As I am going to the dead sea today to attend the WCF, a car from the opposite direction gave me a headlight flash, right at the middle of noon.. so it was a signal of some kind. I thought maybe he’s warning me of something, but I didn’t realise directly what it is. Then another car gave me the same warning, so I was sure that it is something, it was a speed control patrol. I dropped my speed from 110km/h, to 90km/h which is allowed in this road. Few hundred meters ahead, and in the most sneaky hidden place, there was it. Trying to catch the speedy unaware drivers (I was aware, so they didn’t catch me).

Now it got me thinking a little, why did the stranger warn me. Is it because they want good the the fellow driver? spreading love and peace in a drivers’ way ? Or is it some ill feelings and hate toward the money collecting speed control patrols and officers. I am sure that the reason is mostly a mix of the two. And You could find people volunteer help in the most outstanding ways.

Back 7 or 8 years ago, when I first got my driving license, I had an exciting car accident. I was a little speeding, in a small car, at a curve, lost control, the car swinged on the street, hit a sign, and flipped over it, landing the car on its top. Now all that happened in few seconds, I was out of the car without a scratch. But what is exiting is the people. The accident was in the middle of no where (at airport road), but as soon as the car flipped and landed, people started to rush in 10s. I was out of the car, surprised at the whole thing and there was people coming and offering different kind of unasked help:
- “spread sand on the street, and you can blame Amman Municipality (2amanet 3amman)”
- A group of 3 guys lifted up the sign that I hit, and fixed it so that I won’t pay any fines for damaging it.
- When the policeman came, someone that I do not know turned out to be his relative, and told the policeman that I am his cousin, and the policeman didn’t issue any ticket for the accident
- A guy came and offered buying the car while it is on it’s back (Now that is not really help, but someone seeing an opportunity and taking it)

and so on… (PS. after that accident I started to hear some new proverbs that was told to my father : بالمال ولا بالعيال (Let it be money not kids), and بالحديد ولا بالعبيد (hitting iron better than hitting people, or something).

Now, I really would like to understand the actual reasons for this very helpful attitude, is it the nature of our people ? is it being nosy ? is it that we are in the same team against traffic control police ? I’m not really sure, but all I know that I didn’t really need or ask for all that help (I wouldn’t mind any speed control warning in the future, and I may assist my fellow drivers with warning them as well, unite we stand)

About Me

Jordan will be hosting the second edition of the World Culture Forum next week, from 4th-7th of December. The event’s program and speakers list is extraordinary, which attracted me to the event since I knew about it, and so I registered to attend it. The speaker list is so full of key and known speakers, some of which are bloggers by the way.

Speaking of blogging, Lina initiated contact sometime few weeks ago with Shannon Riley from MECCAD and talked about the presence of Jordanian Bloggers in the event. Last night, Shannon talked to me about it, and it was proposed to have an Event Blog, where speakers, participants and organizers could blog about their views and recordings of the international event. It was offered to have Jordan Planet hosting and managing such blog, and so it happened.

Few hours later, World Culture Forum Blog was created, with the blessing and support of the MECCAD, and sponsorship, maintenance, and support of Jordan Planet. We hope that the event attendants will register and post on this blog during the forum, and that those who didn’t blog before, will find it as a chance to get into blogging.

This event blog, could be considered the first of a kind for events in Jordan. It serves double goals of promoting the event, and reflecting the opinions of it’s attendants. As well, it is to furtherly promote blogging in Jordan, and introduce the Jordanian bloggers community to the world.

Your feedback and input on the blog are very welcomed (you can use Contact Us form for that as well)

Blogging, Internet & Technology, Jordan