MAC character set reference

Ever wanted to type the copyright icon, or do an accent over an A without having to resort to some character palette? We have, and it takes time and is an effort. So we put together a series of help sheets that reference all of the characters that aren’t listed on your keyboard, along with their shortcut keys to make your life easier.
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Desert Rose

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in vain
I dream of love as time runs through my hand

I dream of fire
Those dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire
And in the flames
Her shadows play in the shape of a man's desire

This desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise
This desert flower
No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this

And as she turns
This way she moves in the logic of all my dreams
This fire burns
I realize that nothing's as it seems

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in vain
I dream of love as time runs through my hand

I dream of rain
I lift my gaze to empty skies above
I close my eyes
This rare perfume is the sweet intoxication of her love

I dream of rain
I dream of gardens in the desert sand
I wake in vain
I dream of love as time runs through my hand

Sweet desert rose
Each of her veils, a secret promise
This desert flower
No sweet perfume ever tortured me more than this

Sweet desert rose
This memory of Eden haunts us all
This desert flower
This rare perfume, is the sweet intoxication of the fall

PDF Library on MAC

It happened by luck...
I was dragging a PDF file, then I dropped it mistakenly on itunes. I expected an error message or something popping into my face. Surprisingly, the PDF file was added ti the library.
At first glance, I thought it would be a bug or sthg :), so I clicked the file, and it opened the MAC viewer to display the PDF file.
WAAW, the itunes support PDF Files :), I am new to MAC world and it is clear that I miss a lot. I decided to give it a chance and check how much itunes can go far with me as a PDF organizer for files on my MAC.
I created a new library and called it "ebook" and I dragged some pdf to that library.
the itunes copy any files dragged to its library. In this case, I will have at least two copies of each files.
from preferences->advanced uncheck the "keep itunes music folder organized" and "copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library".
This doesn't look enough so far, i need some kind of tagging. thx to the "smart playlist" I can automatically assign a keyword and it will be added automatically to this playlist.
Hence, all I have to do is to add a prefix to my PDF files depending on the folder structure i need it to be.
I browse media and documents through only one application now :)
the advantage of itunes was to make a virtual structure. So, it wasn't a big deal where i place physically the file as long as i organize it well by tagging through the playlist, and the file can exist in many playlist (many-to-many relation) and this is sthg u don't get by folders.
Don't forget that this also will work under Windows as well ;)
I was happy with my itunes so far, although it doesn't support search in PDF contents.
searching in PDF contents is supported in Spotlight, so it was not a big deal. Another problem is that files are not opened inside itunes, instead, they were opened by the MAC Viewer.

What else can I have here?
I found a great tool called yep, It is really a great tool. It has the same decent look as any MAC tool.
It does everythg: searching, printing, tagging, browsing..etc it is really a great document store. It is freeware; I hope it remains so.

Flock's Distraction

Every nation had passed by hard times through its history. Hard times are mainly harsh realities of war and economy.
The way to overcome such moments discriminates the nations and determines which nation will dominate the others.
I don't get why we always obfuscate our problems, the government is not honest in the press releases about any event. Actually, it is not surprising to see that the country's obsession with celebrity is increasing during the last 60 years.
People look for escape during hard times. It is an acceptable way to reduce your pain. I admit that there are a lot of evidences of how this can be used positively. But my concern is that when it becomes to a daily routine running over and over by everybody.
Someone uses people's need to a constant in their lives and a hero who can boost morales by devoting more interest in Celebrities such as famous actors or athletes.
We should try to make the mentality more mature , not to destroy it by making it a shallow mentality seeking gossip columns and films posters.
The best way to face your problem is to know it, not to escape it.
It becomes annoying when a citizen feels that his country is forgetting his pain. Instead, all what his country is doing is to love its celebrities.
Japan didn't submit to these silly procedures after its defeat. they focussed to restructure their country, and they did it as a charm.

RSS Reader For MAC OS

I was trying to figure out the RSS readers i can use on my macbook.
I find an application called Shrook
At first glance, i didn't like it. I can't drag a link from Firefox. It works only with Safari.
Actually I am not a Safari fan as it has some problems with many sites. Rendering Arabic sites is always corrupted on Safari.

I decided to move to Google Reader
I didn't use it b4. I relied on Google Desktop reader, and it was enough for me at that time.
But I realized sthg very weird that may push me to refer to Shrook again.
I didn't find "SEARCH" in Google Reader!!!!
I didn't try to bother to look for it at first, I never expect that it is not there. IT's GOOGLE!!!

The Thai won the Imagine CUP

Thai students win the Imagine CUP. Their project was text-to-speech.

Details for the judge moments can be found here

The C++ Future

Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup, (English attempt at pronunciation of his name would be "B-yar-ne Strov-stroop") creator of C++, discusses new features that will be present in the next version of C++ (tentatively C++09). He addresses many important questions form the audience, and gives his views on C++ compilers, including GCC and Visual C++.
check the video here

you can get a list of applications built on C++ here

Install Beast the open source forum

to install Beast open source forum:

1. I prefer to get the code from Trunk, but last time I tried to do so, i found the version unstable. So, i used the tags link.

   $ svn co http://svn.techno-weenie.net/projects/beast/tags/rel-1.0pre/  beast
   

2. Install RedCloth

   $ gem install RedCloth
   

3. Install open-id

   $ gem install ruby-openid

4. Install gettext

   $ gem install gettext

5. Edit the environment.rb by changing the Salt Password by any different value.
6. You Are Done
   
   

Windows Vs Linux

Today i saw a map on http://www.sanasecurity.com/ for system calls on both windows and linux.
I was shocked seeing how many calls are needed when u run IIS on windows. dude, this is really complex, hence very hard to be secured.

System running IIS on windows.
system running Apache on Linux

Zimbra Violating the Open Source Term

Not all pretenders are Open source... this is true with zimbra at least which claims it is open source but actually I see everythg they r doing is against open source. check this for detailed discussion abt zimbra as open source.
I am still in my battle field working on Zimbra.
We upgraded to the new zimbra version now....
In this new version I found sthg in the code that made my nerves; all variables are written in this format "_158", "_140".
I found this hilarious...