Archive for the 'High-Tech' Category

Oct
27

I started recently studying project management academically, but without taking any academic courses. Not really to learn how to manage projects, but more precisely to learn a standard for project management which is the ANSI PMI 99-001-2004. Of course after a month or two I’m willing to get the PMP certification not just pass it !


PMBOK
Last week I got the PMBOK Guide which is the official book to become a certified project management professional. The book is available in PDF and paper format, but I have a preference for the paper format so I can remind myself that I have something to study.

Project Management Body Of Knowledge third edition or PMBOK, is around 400 pages and very general and complete. The book talk about any kind of project things that make it much more interesting for me. The only problem that I’m currently working in a Weak Matrix organisation, so there is no real project management, just anything that could be changed anytime, and could be compared to anything but project management. Hopefuly I’m not the PM here !

Anyway, many consider the book difficult or not very well written, it’s very technical I agree. Maybe because I used to read more complex engineering things in university that I don’t conisder it that hard. In both cases, you can’t imagine that the PMBOK becomed ANSI easily, and standard are not always the solution but it is just tools that could serve in real life.

Have a look and if you think passing the exam, just enjoy the PMBOK !

Oct
22

The last days I was trying to share keyboard and mouse between two PCs in my office, instead than having two PCs, two keyboard, two mouses … with lots of papers, printer, sometimes scanner … It become very annoying. So I found the solution to use Synergy which allow to share keyboard and mouse between many desktops or laptops. The solution sounds great, but I wasn’t enable to use it and had always a problem with the winxp client.

After lot of trials, I found a much more better solution, and more accessible one, which was based on VNC. Since I already run a VNC server on m ubuntu, the implementation was more than easier. I just had to install Win2VNC  on the winxp box and configure it to connect to the ubuntu VNC server. You have just to enable remote desktop on ubuntu from System > Preferences > Remote Desktop, and be sure to add a good password :

Ubuntu Remote desktop

There is nothing else to do, I just removed keyboard and mouse from ubuntu and now using only one keyboard and a single mouse to work on both PCs. There is more solutions that you can do, but I found this one the easiest.

Aug
07

I heard last year about OneCard.net, when they won the 2nd place at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology Award : Raqmi 2006. The idea is pretty simple but interesting, Onecard aims to replace all cards available in the market. Instead of buying Jawal, mobily, Internet, DSL, hosting … or any others cards, you buy just OneCard and then you can use it for any of the available services.

OneCard

Mohamed Zagzoog, owner of zwjate.com one of the service supported by OneCard, told me that the service is pretty known and it’s generating good sales for his website. I have a problem with mobily because they don’t offer online payement for prepaid accounts, while AlJawal offer it for everyone, so I registered at OneCard to give it a try. They are using Alahli credit cards processor, which is also my bank, so I paid online with the minimum 50 SAR. After buying credits, they quickly called me to confirm my identity. Then from the website I bought mobily credits, and the card is instantly available. Simply neat, and I will definitely use it instead of growing my card’s collection at home.

Apr
14

Tomorrow will be held a Conference on Web 2.0 at King Abdulaziz University Jeddah presented by Alaa Eddine Halaq. I’ll be probably there from 6h to 8h, just curious to meet some active web 2.0 guys and hear some arabic vocabulary for IT. Below the conference flyer.

Web 2.0 Conference

Mar
23

Une semaine d’actualité IT, période disons de test pour voir un peu ce que ça donne, se débarasser du rodage de deux ans ou plus depuis que j’ai rien écrits en français ! Ah le bon vieux temps des rapports de l’école (que je faisait jamais) !! :-) voici le résumé de la semaine :

  1. Google, l’été et l’Open Source
  2. Le Spam, de l’argent ou de la nuisance facile ?
  3. Le Web Contre le Desktop, Que le meilleur Gagne !
  4. OpenID, Votre Identité 2.0
Mar
20

itactu-logo.gif

Ca viens de se mijoter hier, ça s’appelle ITACTU, tout simplement L’actualité de l’IT. Ce n’est pas assez nouveau comme projet, mais c’est quelque chose que j’avais en tête depuis quelque temps et voilà il a fallu que ça sort hier à la lumière. J’ai un petit problème de clavier qui s’est résolu, mais le prolème maintenant c’est que mes doigts ont pris l’habitude de taper de l’anglais (qwerty) puis autre chose, tellement j’écrivais du français sans accents maintenant je suis plus sûr si j’ai omis un circonflexe ou un c cédille quelque part. Bref, je vais revenir à taper du français !

Revenons à nos moutons ! ITACTU ne sera pas la version française de phpmagazine.net même si ce n’est pas très loin. Cette fois c’est du pur et dur orienté entreprise, y’auras plus de codes comme ici, ni de la programmation, mais c’est plutôt tout ce qui se rapporte au développement des technologies de l’information et de la télécommunication. Voilà, le site est assez simple, très basique pour commencer. J’ai l’habitude de mettre plus de “S” qu’il en faut, comme si quelque chose me dis qu’on n’est pas seul au monde et il faut tout mettre au pluriels, alors si vous remarquer ça sera très gentil de me notifier. Si vous êtes intéressés pour joindre ITACTU, il suffit d’envoyer un petit email, je ne peut vous dire maintenant ni comment ni en quoi ça risque d’évoluer. Affaire à suivre …

Feb
03

QRCode is one of the new standard developed by DENSO(Japan) and which aim to replace the old barcode. QRCode is 2D barcode with a large capacity to stock data, small printout size and High speed scan. I have a barcode Reader in my N80 compatible QRCode, so I’ve written OpenQRCode a one page free QR code generator. The usage is very easy simply enter the text you want then hit the generate box to get your code. You can then download and use it wherever you want, you can even make a badge for your website with your Name, URL, Email … Add it to your prints …etc. The website simply use nifty corner and jquery for fun :-)

OpenQRCode.png

Jan
10

Apple just revealed iPhone on the Macworld, the biggest event for mac lovers. iPhone will be available by June 2007 and pricing will be $499 the 4GB, $599 the 8GB model. Combination of a mobile phone, widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. Still, iphone didn’t get authorization yet from the Federal Communications Commission, so just wait until authorization will be obtained. iPhone size is around 6.1×11.5×1.16 cm, pretty small ! Something new I noticed on the new Macworld is that Apple dropped Computers from the company name, so just call it Apple !

iphone.jpg

Update : But surprising there is no 3G support in iPhone ! For a mobile phone which will be released in 2008 without video call, without fast internet, this is really very bad. Welcome to the mobile world !

Jan
09

This is something that I’ll be interested to get if my iMac plans fall down. Linutop is a diskless computer very small 9.3 x 2.7 x 15 cm for 280 gr, running a linux as its name indicates and the very minimum software to surf the internet Firefox, AbiWord, PDF reader, Gaim and Totem. LinuTop have the expansion to support USB2 , Wifi connection, Flat pannel. I find it an excellent internet terminal and for storage you can use anytime an external USB drive.

linutop_desk.jpg

Dec
03

It have been long time that I was looking for a neat way to update Nokia phone software without problems, and finally Nokia make it part of their official software. The latest version of Nokia PC Suite 6.82.22.0 introduce this new feature “Update phone software”, after the first run you’ll be redirected to Nokia Website to download the software required for your phone. There is a small list of supported phones, almost Nokia N Series and E series in addition to few other models.

Nokia N80 Software Update

My N80 have lot of problems and was really slow especially at the start up, so i really needed a software update to fix all those bugs.The update took about 30 minutes, and require simply the phone cable. First a backup of all data to memory card is necessary because all data will be lost after upgrade, and when it finish simply restore it from memory card. Something not really encouraging to update if the internet connection is slow or not stable, also be sure to charge your mobile fully to avoid disconnection during update. Otherwise the procedure is easy, and most important of all you’ll be able to update your software phone and then enjoy !