Calling all innovators, The story of Nokia in Middle East

Peace be upon you

How are you guys? Today is not going to be a technical post.

Me and couple of people I consider to be Geniuses made 2 applications and submitted it to Nokia Bel3rabi competition.

I would like to congratulate the First winner "Enpronomics" I know their Marketing Manager, Hany Waziri, and I wish them best of luck

The point today is I want to demonstrate what we have done

1- We did 2 Application Mixing 2 Technologies which is S60 platform and Flash lite
2- Few people dare to take such a step because it takes hell of time to do it

To be able to maintain powerful flash lite application for Symbian it need lots of system services to be able to do what it should do. Based on that we have built a HTTP Server competitive to Kunneri Lite and Janus in Symbian C++ as a way of inter-process communication. The idea was to develop two killer applications and end up with a server API that can be used by the community to enable Flash Lite applications.

Some (not all) things we loaded that server with

1- ADVANCED way to get the location without GPS, We managed to do amazing server that uses cell information and signal strength while you are on the go to get accurate location, this server runs on Symbian device collects information about the Cell towers and Signal strength, using the vector maps, we draw the way that user is taking, after that we can with only, cell tower info + signal strength we can EXACTLY resolve where the user is without GPS. Why we did that because the Location APIs in Symbian used to take so long to get us a location.
2- We did a proxy server, because in certain cases, security restrictions my prevent HTTP request local and to the internet in same time, we beat that by a proxy server that routes the requests from the flash to the internet and returns the response to Flash
3- Sending MMS in the background
4- Record Video
5- Record Audio
6- Advanced web server that do lots of math, Media server (Something like youtube)

But what is our applications about?

1- Ol2ot, this Arabic and English application is a social based application, u can snap photo, video, Audio and send it to our server, SEAMLESSLY in 3 clicks, u can publish a photo with very minimal delay, and it geo tags it for you.

2- Wassal, it is service directory application, this application work in very seamless way, you open the application, select what you want ( food, entertainment, etc ) based on your location you will get results near to you, showed in a map, also there is free text search

Guess what is in the free text search, it is WHOLE new technology, I wish I can talk about but we are working on patenting it, believe me it is something that no one ever done before, reach accurate results

I don't mean anything negative by the next phrase, but the wining app is "Here I Am", send the GPS location using (SMS or Web). It is like one feature of our application. I think that it also sends the message that we live in dangerous country and need a "help button"

From Nokia wiki there is sample for how to get the location using the LBS APIs (it is easy), for the SMS there is sample too, and guess what there is sample to send data over the web. mmm, it has decent interface, it is normal lists and buttons, so almost I can't see anything new. This application can be made by anyone in a few hours and I can extract its functionality from our applications.

For the 2nd place application, I have no comment, it is application that uses lookup tables for calculate the intake calories per day, I can do that in almost week or so

The competition was about Innovation, they calm that they are looking for something new, we have made "new media based social network (ol2ot)", if I knew that they where looking for things like the 1th and 2nd place application, I would do 15 Application like that and post them :D and of course I would get the first and 2nd places :D . But as far as I can tell, Nokia didnt even test our application

At the end, although I am dissapointed, 1st and 2nd place guys did a great job by just submitting, my only problem is, when will we start supporting the things that take vision to see, the things that i really related to innovation. Integration of many complex technologies into usable service that can generate both revenue and valuable data.

I am sorry for the long post and thanks for reaching to this line :-)

Thanks for your time.

BR

Ahmed Essam

RTOS Course, It was more than amazing

Peace be upon you

How are you guys? I have been busy for while in many things, I have just finished RTOS course, let us begin with simple thing which is What is RTOS? simply it is Real Time Operating System, the course was all about concepts and main ideas behind it, What I understand from this course is that it is all about time, time is most critical issue in the Real Time Operating System, Also Multitasking is very important issue, anyways I will write more detailed post about it, here is some photos taken from the lab.


This is the development kit that we use.

This is the output of the application that I have wrote, I have wrote it after doing the workshop, it was very tight as availability of time, 

My application was XBM reader, the XBM format is Array of image information, I have got this image form the internet, the other part of the application was gradient effect in the back ground, it is in lines each line wide is 40 pixel, it toggle lines, one start with Whites end with orange, and the other one starts with black ends with dark blue.

here is the code of the drawing function, this function is very effective because it has direct access to LCD  memory.

The nice thing about this thing is it is very fast, the OS starts in less than one second, also drawing was very fast because of the nature of the device, the device work by memory, which means, if you want to run anything you get to its memory location and start what ever you want, it is WIDE OPEN, waiting for whatever you want.

Thanks for your time, 

BR

Ahmed Essam

iPhone, Totally joke in Egypt

Peace be upon you 

How are you? I am sorry for long time "unposting", I am busy as hell :D.

anyways, Yesterday iPhone had been released in Egypt, it is nice but it is very bad when you know some details.

in Apple web site you will find this 2 nice logos for our "beloved" Mobile network operators

as far as I remember that Steve Jobs said that the iPhone will not Exceed the 200$, which is more than nice.

Here is the shock coming, when you check the websites for the operators you will see that you will have to pay 

3850 for the 8 G, which means 692 USD, :D

4450 for the 16 G, which means 800 USD :D:D:D:D:D

check the below snaps from the web sites

Vodafone "OFFER"

Mobinil Offer

The nice thing is after you pay all that money, you can't use that phone out side the network, which means, it only works on single SIM (MobiJoke, VodaFool) 

Mmmmm, so I don't like to be A Joke (MobiJoke) nether Fool (VodaFool) nether iDiot (Being iPhone user)

because it is not fair, simply you can get this device with same amount work any where in the world, 

please check the "Apple Hong Kong" store and see it

Apple Hong Kong store

also here is snap from the Site

Mmm, Vodafone called me, Let us see the tons of jokes they told me.

I will tell you the bottom lines to save your time, it was 9 minutes call

"Me, The phone is too much, I have friend get it with same amount and works with any network"

this one is real, I know some one who get it from Italy and guess what it works here, guess what too, he can get to store and download "WHATEVER"

"Vodafone Guy, Hahaha, this is can't be, the government will track him and take it from him"

"Me, Why, Because of the GPS, don't u know that kids in Egypt can get n95, which has GPS"

"VF G, yes, but"

"Me, iPhone GPS has been dimmed by software methods, which means, if it cracked, it will WORK"

"VF G, but the phone can't work here in Egypt too, it will only work for the region that it sold within"

"Me, I SAW IT WORKING IN EGYPT, and the guy gets the 16 G white phone, with 4300 LE"

anyways, here is what I mean, this people are kidding, I don't know why I am thinking about reconsidering everything related to Apple.

I am sure that Apple knows, everything going on and they agree with it, 

I hope that Egyptian guys, DO NOT BUY this crap, until it gets to as promised, this always happen, Greedy resellers with greedy government 

even if it gets to the promised price I will not get it, I prefer Nokia, they have much experience in what mobile needs, not with device without "Copy and Paste"

anyways, I hope that you miss me as I miss you :)

Thanks for your time.

BR

Ahmed Essam

P.S: Sorry for the linguistic mistakes, :)

Nice videos for "Steve Balmer"

YouTube has tons of things like this for Steve Balmer, it is really nice, I like this guy :D

he is Amazing

Ballmer sells windows1.0


Steve Ballmer Sells Windows XP



Steve Ballmer on Vista and MacBook Air @ MIX08



Math Matters to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Debugging in Windows live

(The post is not completed yet, and I don't feel like I want to write more, please pray for me.)

Peace be upon you

While I was digging in windows stuff I have found very good way to debug in Windows, but in first place why you or me may need to debug in windows, simply because of crash analysis, sometimes you need to know from the crash came, the source of the problem as long as you are sure that you didn't do anything wrong, you go deeper to have a run with the system over the debugging way, it will end up with clear conclusion about the problem and causes, let see how to do it.

First when you start up the Windows press F8 and select debugging mode from the boot menu

After that you may need to generate a crash as test crash to practice your self on such thing, to do so you have to do small trick that is provided by Microsoft ,

go to registry editor (Regedit) and navigate to this path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ i8042prt \ Parameters

Then add the DWORD Value and name it "CrashOnCtrlScroll" and set its value to 1
restart your machine, and Press Ctrl and press Scroll Lock twice, then you will get this nice BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death)

if you enable the Debugging mode this screen will be waiting until you start debugging it.

to start debugging the machine, you have to connect the crashed machine with the debugging machine and connect them together through the serial cable,

Egyptian Companies Part 1

Peace be upon you

This days I have many struggling things in my mind, here is listing in what I am thinking about:

1. I wanna have a good chance in big respectable company (for me Microsoft is my Dream)
2. I wanna do something extra ordinary by doing what I am thinking about, I wanna makeover the Software industry in Egypt, I have a very nice thoughts that could make it better with practical way go on with this ideas.
3. I wanna start my POOR company and start running my own shows

To have the right answer I have to find the right question, that's what's killing me right now, actually I can't find the "Question" , right now all I am thinking about that I am lonely in what I am thinking about, I need someone to share what I am thinking about, all people here are so negative no one wanna take his shot and make his dream real,

sometimes I feel that I should take it as it is of course not for life, but this is not creative way to solve the problem, to solve problem, I have to be like the problem, I have to behave like the problem to understand it, this point I call the surrendering for the sickness, but it's not for life, sometimes u need to have a break to fight back with more powerful attack that is really give you back what you want, this what I think I am in now, I am taking my breath, to fight back this sleepy community that's can't have a very tiny step to make the life better, I think I have now my decision I will keep on in what I have now,

head capital, as many of limited vision of managers here they never think that "Head capital of any software company is its Employees", they never think like Bill gates "Microsoft" and Steve Jobs "Apple" they were the First employees that make their companies the best can that it can be, What I am dreaming is to have my chance,

actually I am so depressed of the point we have here, Software companies in Egypt consider the Employee

1. as asset, they have life time then throw it and find someone else to do the job.
2. as Consumable, they try to make use of the employee as much as they can
3. as number, some big companies treat their employees as number, any one working is just number, this number is do what is suppose to do, if this number didn't they will get anther number to do that, they don't care about the Employee it self.
4. as container, they suck the employee they take what ever they can take
5. VERY FEW, treat Employee as Human "I heard a lot about ITWorx" that they do so with their employees, they try to give them what they need to be creative,

Most of the Types that I have sort up there are common on thinking that they giving over deserved salary, when you talk to the higher management they always think about the money, they never think about the spiritual part that give the mind the power of creativity, this managers are not so creative because they keep thinking in the numbers they never looks what is behind it, they never believe that there is something else beside the numbers, it's numbers soul, the number soul can give you more than the number it self, anyways it will take hell of time to talk about it

something funny, I have been working now for almost 3 years in software development, I work for 5 Companies

1. EgyComp Very Good team, Very Ugly Management
2. Agiliance ME Good team, Bad spirit ( bad enough until the company totally fall )
3. InfoSoft Very Good Team, Very Good Management, inconvenient market
4. Imaginet software Very Good Team, Very Good Management, bad resources handling
5. GET Group Struggling great good team,great international projects, Cold feeling of employees (Cold to death)

Why I keep move on, I like to work with a free mind, Software industry totally depend on the creativity, you can't just put people in bad atmosphere and push them to do things they don't want to do and expect that they will give something back to you, this is what really happen, every one is working in software company in Egypt is like a slave, this is what American guy said to some of my colleague at the work, this is true, we are slaves why do the WRONG things and we can't say NO, we have minds that can clearly separate between right and wrong, for me I am sick of the word "Just make it work", this is not right, making it just work doesn't mean that it is working right,

at the End I hope that you didn't get depressed because of what I am saying, it is just me that have this feeling, I don't know if the others has the same or not, but this what my eyes can see, but I am not that negative, I always take steps to change things, for me I am satisfied of what I am doing, I am move a lot and I will move again until I get what I want, also in moving I learn a lot, I learn things about people I see and types of customers, I work in many great things, I was working for mobile development ( thousands using the software that i am doing ) in other hand I did International E-Government projects (Millions are connected to my Server) ( hundreds using my Embedded application ), I believe all of that was very good for me it cause that my knowledge got wider in the software industry and give me a lot that others can't really have.

thanks for your time :)

BR

Ahmed Essam

Win Imagine Cup with ImagineWay

Win Imagine Cup with ImagineWay

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Cheap PCs 100$

Peace be upon you

I heared a lot about this PCs,cheap PCs for poor countries,I don't get the full idea when I read about it, I thought that the HUG companies will do something to get some money and that's it, the first idea hit my brain was "they will restore any old product and relive it, and sell it with low price", but I found that this cheap PCs are actually amazing, it has brand new component, I found 4 Cheap PCs,by the way some of it work using Windows XP Embedded,
here is the first one "which I like"

- Intel "Classmate" -> to read more about it
http://www.intel.com/intel/worldahead/?iid=search



- AMD "Personal Internet Communicator"-> to read more about it
http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_12264,00.html

- MIT Media Lab
http://laptop.org/


as I told you before that this PCs are running using Windows EXP (Embedded), so if you wanna have some amazing stuff I think you should buy one and get the SDK for Windows EXP, and have fun developing software to it,
Microsoft Embedded Page http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/default.mspx
I wish you like it as I do :D, also I wish to get one of this to have some drive test