http://ahamshay.com/site/index/ en s_terkait@yahoo.com Copyright 2008 2008-07-31T04:39:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/thank-you-gpic/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/thank-you-gpic/#When:04:39:00Z To the respectable GM of GPIC, Mr. Abdulrahman Jawahery, To the respectable DGM of GPIC, Mr. Yousif Abdalla Yousif, To Mr. Sami Khairi, To Mr. Adnan Al-Mahmood, To ITK department team members, and to all staff members at GPIC, I have been training at the IT and Knowledge department for the past two months, and it has been a great privilege and a great honor to be able to experience the work environment in a wonderful company that you lead. On the outset, I would like to thank Mr. Abdulrahman Jawahery for the wonderful time I have spent at GPIC. It has been a great benchmark for me. I was inspired right from the first day and wanted to do my best and strive to make a difference that GPIC lives to do. I remember the first day I was interviewed with Mr. Adnan AL-Mahmoud, he promised me that in my two months in training, I would get the same experience as if I were an employee at GPIC for a whole year. I am very proud to say, I have received a whole lot more than a year of work experience! I have actually watched myself as I have developed into a better, mature and responsible person throughout my stay at GPIC. I have come to understand more about myself and others. All my life, my thoughts were focused on my career and own self-development. At GPIC, I have learned that its so much more than that! Self-development is not just about excelling in profession as I have come to know it. It is about excelling in attitude, morals and ethics. This is something I have learned from you and will never forget. It is just one of the valuable lessons I have come to learn by simply observing and interacting with the great people at the IT and Knowledge Department and at GPIC entirely. I have kept a small diary and wrote at least one thing I have learned each day from GPIC’s IT&K Department. I would go over them every once in a while these past few days, and it always leaves me speechless at the number of valuable lessons on kindness, responsibility, generosity, self-respect, and even creativity practiced in every day life by the people at GPIC! During my stay, I have observed many things that have touched me deeply. I have seen people, even though they come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and different professions, yet they seem to have found the one thing that brings them together; the smile on every one’s face every time you see them and the daily morning greetings! It delighted me when I saw people like Mr. Yousif Abdallah the DGM greet us in the morning. It also astounded me how one person goes through learning to speak many languages fluently to just be able to interact with other employees and give them comfort and a sense of belonging. I really saw the special approach that was taken in the department’s meetings. Mr. Adnan had a wonderful way of kicking off a meeting with getting personal news and updates from his team. They did not jump into right into business and barked at everyone to get to work, instead, it always kicked off with an ice-breaker conversations that brought comfort to each individual. Getting personal information and allowing them to speak freely was something that shocked me, as I was taught differently. I think the GPIC way is something very special and very successful. The personal development programs held at GPIC also attracted my attention. I have never seen leaders care about the self development of their people just as much as they did for the productions produced. I had the privilege to attend two sessions and was extremely impressed at the feedback from the staff members, they were eager to see whats new and take advantage of what GPIC offers them. Prince, my program manager! He has truly organized a wonderful program for me that allowed me to utilize every hour I spent at GPIC. I was able to learn so much in such a short period of time because of his help. Working with Mr. Moneim for the last month he spent at GPIC was a great opportunity. I have learned so much from him on IT, software development and attitude. He has a wonderful personality and it was an honor to be his student. What brings me to tears is how he actually cares for me and my future, even though he is on holiday and has only known me for a short time, he has the GPIC trademark of caring for people. I still receive emails from him and enjoy keeping this wonderful relationship with the great people at GPIC. Meeting and working with everyone including Mr. Tariq Hadi, who always found something helpful and beneficial for me personally, all from his own experience. I really appreciate those times. I have also worked with Mohammad Issa, a wonderful person that was extremely good at what he does. Mr. Tawfeeq took me on a great tour of the server room and I swear, that was one of the best days of my life! It was a simple tour for him, but I have always wanted to explore that side of the IT and he explained everything to me. Thank you Tawfeeq. I have sat as a student with Mr. Naidu, Mr. Vijay, Mr. BuKhalfan, Mr. BuHaji and Latifa! I feel I have asked so many questions and they always smiled and answered back. It was brilliant how patient they were with me. I am so proud of Naidu earning his SAP certification! It was great celebrating achievements like that. SAP is the greatest ERP system and it was definitely a great opportunity to explore every aspect of it with the IT&K team. I have learned everything from the SAP landscape to the different modules used to programming ABAP for SAP. This is something that I don’t believe any training center specialized in SAP could do for me in such a short period of time! I was also at GPIC when Mustafa Jr was elected “Employee of the Month”, and boy was that such an exciting event! I felt the entire department’s joy with Mustafa winning the award and it was amazing how everyone was extremely happy and proud of him. It was wonderful to celebrate employees who work hard and set a great example. I was exposed to many things at GPIC. I was given the opportunity to attend every meeting at IT&K and this is something that I have greatly benefited from personally and professionally. Watching how a leader deals and interacts with others was very important to me, as I believe it is not something leaders practice at work only but also in everyday life. Learning about the software development and engineering at GPIC is something that I can truly admit cannot be taught at any school or even at any company. The technology used and the practices the employees are using are truly practiced at a high professional standard that I wish to carry with me where ever I go. Watching the employees take on the responsibilities and work together as a team in a quick orderly matter has inspired me to do better for my self and for the workplace. I have been shown that the IT field is more than creating something new from nothing, the creative approach to software development, personal development and management that I have been introduced to confirmed my desire to become a better person and a better leader. I am very happy to have GPIC as my first work experience; I have felt it was an excellent match for my skills and interests. It has set an example and a standard for me. I believe that I can, and it is my duty, to take the lessons I have learned and introduce them to the places I go to. To make a difference and set the example GPIC has set for me. In a great way, GPIC has molded me into a much better and well developed person. I have come to GPIC with some expectations and goals that I wanted to achieve by the end of my internship. I am truly proud to say that I have not only achieved my goals, but it has gone far beyond my expectations. I now see things clearly and have a great understanding of business and people. One thing I feel I have come to realize that I took for granted was appreciating other people. I never took the time to thank the people that worked with me and helped me all my life. I only realized my selfishness when I saw everyday how great it felt when someone showed their appreciation and gratitude towards another person even for the simplest things, like a nice cup of coffee. It had definitely moved me greatly. I was also moved at how, even though each person had his or her differences, they were able to share them and express themselves freely without the fear of hurting another person’s feelings. This is something I learned and am truly trying to practice in my personal life as well. At first, I thought it was just the IT&K Department that was just so unique and excelled in those aspects. It came to me, after interacting with people from various departments that they all seem to have that special spark in them. This is something I will never forget. The people at GPIC have welcomed me every single day and even the security guard took the opportunity to wish me all the best after I spent my last day. These little moments mean so much to me and will forever be thankful for the time I spent at GPIC. Everyone I have worked with at GPIC has always found a way teach me something new and share their experiences on the interests I have shared with them. I would like to sincerely appreciate the time and efforts spent on educating me and guiding me with not only software development but also my career goals, and recommending strategies for achieving them. All of the advice and guidance was very helpful and gave me a new perspective on available opportunities in my personal and professional life. I would like to thank Mr. Mustafa Aydemir and Mr. Hamada Bashir for their wonderful hospitality and for the great deal of time spent in answering my questions and simply throwing new information they wanted to make sure I learn. I was touched by their care and interest in my best benefits; whether it was by inviting me to attend more meetings on various topics that would enhance and broaden my skills or by giving resources and directions that would allow me to reach my goals quicker and more effectively. It definitely has! Where do I begin to thank the IT&K Manager, Mr. Adnan AL-Mahmood! You are an inspiration. You are a role model. You are so many things I wish I would become one day, inshallah. Right from the first day, you made sure to understand what my skills are and you put me in the right hands of your team to make sure I learn from the best on the best practices. Your “open door policy” is incredible, I was hesitant at first to interrupt you from your work, but you always seemed to manage multi-tasking in a professional level mashallah. Your concern in people’s best interest astonished me and I wish to follow that. I believe in the holistic vision and strategy and hope to carry that same energy with me and make a difference. You have brought me back into believing in myself and about the dreams I have put aside. That itself means a lot to me. Your passion in bringing new and more to GPIC is astonishing. Thank you. Thank you. I will be forever grateful for the day we met and the days I worked with you. It has been a great opportunity and I am touched at your care in staying in touch and checking on me every once in a while. When I do great things, it is because you inspired me to. It is not coincidence that I have come to GPIC to work with you, Moneim, Tariq, Mustafa, Hamada, Prince, and the ITK team! It means something and I feel blessed to have been given this opportunity. I especially appreciate the interest on following up with me in the future and welcoming my calls at any time for assistance and friendly hellos. It has touched my heart how much you really care for me. No matter how many times I thank you, it will never be enough to show my gratitude. I really, really appreciate all the effort you, the team, and everyone at GPIC have put into creating a welcoming and friendly atmosphere for me to work in. I am confident that the new skills I have gained from the internship will enable me to be a productive member of any team I join in the future as it will in my personal life. Writing this letter has not been easy for me as the quality of the two short months I have spent at GPIC is so valuable to me personally and I feel I words can not describe my gratitude. I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Hamada Bashir, Mr. Mustafa Aydemir, Mr. Prince, Mr. Tariq Hadi, Mr. Moneim, Mr. Tawfeeq, Mr. Mohd Issa, Mr. Mustaf Jr., Mr. Yousif Bukhalfan, Mr. Yousif Buhajji, Mr. AbdulQader, Miss Latifa, Mr. Naidu, Mr. Vijay, Mr. Satish, Mr. Naser (I love your coffee!), Mr. Ramu from intelligroup, everyone from intelligroup and all of my new friends including Ms. Najat, Ms. Reema, Ms. Qoot, Miss Lulu and Ms. Sabah. I would like to extend my regards and appreciation to everyone at GPIC for their wonderful hospitality. I will never forget each and every one of you! I wish you all joy, happiness and love. Please forward my thanks to them. I hope I did not miss anyone, there were many wonderful people at GPIC that I have met and want to thank them. GPIC has greatly contributed in me and I take it as a responsibility to pass that forward. Thank you for your hospitality and generosity, I forever will recognize it. Best Regards, Shaymaa AL-Terkait Personal 2008-07-31T04:39:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/i-got-tagged/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/i-got-tagged/#When:15:58:00Z Okay, so Ananyah tagged me a while back, but I have been swamped with work I never got a chance to post this up! Here it goes… Rules: a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. b. Using only the first page, pick an image. c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker (choosing 4×3 columns) What is your first name? Shaima (had to use my least favorite way to spell my name to get a decent picture! I’m not liking this ‘photos from first-page only’ rule) What is your favorite food? Sea food What high school did you go to? American Academy for Girls What is your favorite color? Red Who is your celebrity crush? Waleed from Captain Majed, fictional counts no? Favorite drink? Chamomile tea Dream vacation? Spain Favorite dessert? Tapioca pudding What you want to be when you grow up? wiser What do you love most in life? famillia One Word to describe you? complete nerd Your flickr name? la jonquille… its the flowers, its the flowers! If you wanna do this tag, do it… it’s pretty fun! photo credits: 1. Shaima, 2. uni don, 3. Sen. John Warner / Elizabeth Taylor, 4. The red one, 5. 2006_07-3-CaptainTsu, 6. Cup and Teas, 7. ¡Splass...!!Un regalo (a present), 8. coconut tapioca pudding with papaya, 9. everyday’s fortune, 10. Tracy + Rolando, Ixtapa, Guerrero, enero 2007. Lado Canadiense / Canadian side, 11. Day 316 | 09 March 2008 | 13 Things, 12. “La Tour aux Figures” de Jean Dubuffet Personal 2008-07-06T15:58:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/imagine-cup-2008/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/imagine-cup-2008/#When:14:57:00Z So, recently, I recieved great news about being nominated to attend Imagine Cup finale in Paris and cover the event for Microsoft’s Channel 8. I didn’t want to announce anything until I got updates. I wasn’t their final choice, but boy it was wonderful being nominated. Getting that oppurtunity means you get to interview awesome people and talk to the anxious teams that want to WIN! What is Imagine Cup? Imagine Cup is an annual competition that Microsoft came up with years back. Any student above the age of 16 from anywhere around the world can join simply by signing up at the website (imaginecup.com). There are various categories to choose from: Software Development, Game Development, Embedded Dvelopment, Interface Design, Web Design, Photography, Short Film and the IT Challenge. You do not have to be an IT student and the most important rule is to stick to the theme and use Microsoft technology to come up with your solution. The key to win is to come up with something innovative! This year, the theme is: “Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment”. Imagine Cup in the Middle East! It is really exciting how students from the Middle East are eager to participate, learn and enjoy this great experience. This is the second year in which the Middle East participates, and the first year a Kuwaiti team joins! Dr. Thalaya Al-Fozan led his Super Coders team all the way to Dubai to present their project. Just last month, teams from Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE and Oman gathered together in Dubai to compete in the first round of the Imagine Cup competiton for Software Development category. A team from UAE won the Imagine Cup Gulf Regional Finals and proceeded to the world finals in Paris. At Imagine Cup, everyone is a winner. Jut being there in Dubai, the teams have been exposed to a great educational experience and had the oppurtunity to meet people from different backgrounds that share their same passion of technology. To participate in any other category, teams would directly sign up and submit their work online. Next year, there will be a few changes; each country will hold its own competition and the winner will proceed directly to the finals. There will also be new categories introduced - so it will be great for anyone interested! Paris, France. Final Round. July 3 - 8, 2008. Now in Paris, where this year’s final round kicked off on Monday, July 3, 2008. At least 370 students from 61 countries across the world gather together at City Hall to present their projects and win great prizes. There are teams from Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia participating this year in the final round. The focus for Imagine Cup 2008 is on building technology solutions that help address challenging environmental sustainability issues. From a pool of over 200,000 participants, 121 teams have been selected to represent their countries in Paris for a week of competition around their innovative technology solutions. These student-developed solutions range from improving access to clean water, reducing pollution and carbon emissions to achieving sustainable cities and reducing demand on energy. Now, of course its not all panic, code and coffee during those days! On July 6, students were given a day off to enjoy their visit in Paris with their new friends. On July 8th, the award ceremony will take place and the winners are announced from each category. Of course, an official annoucement declaring a suprise theme and the location of the Imagine Cup 2009 Finals. It is going to be a great surprise at the end of the day! Find out more: http://imaginecup.com/Competition/finals.aspx Microsoft 2008-07-06T14:57:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/belbin-self-perception-inventory/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/belbin-self-perception-inventory/#When:16:58:00Z This month, I have joined a spectacular team. Working with them is just unbelievable. We’ve all read and learned so much about team work practices, leadership and management, but unfortunately it is truly hard to find in this region. Or that’s what I hear from my friends. So for me, it’s such a privilege working with these guys. The entire IT department is awesome. This brings me to what I decided to write about today: Belbin Self-Perception Inventory. It is something that I was first introduced to by a Doctor friend that I have had the pleasure of meeting here in Bahrain. I really enjoyed it, so when I went home I did some more research on Belbin’s work. Which lead me to prepare my own presentation on the 9 personality types researched and developed by Dr. Meredith Belbin, a British researcher and management theorist. This is not like Myers-brigg personality test, where people are classified according to how they express their preference for four different behavior types. Belbin’s analysis will tell you what role, or roles, you can best play in a team. Team Roles are not equivalent to Personality Types. Belbin’s inventory is used to gain insight into an individual’s behavioral type. The test assesses how an individual behaves in a team environment. So, because it is a behavioral tool, it is subject to change. If you take it every year, you will notice that the results will change. There are two ways to take the Belbin Inventory, one is self-assessment. The other is taking the self-assessment as well as having your team members provide feedback on how it was working with you by taking the observers’ assessment. Both views are compared and contrasted to provide the most accurate description of your best role in the team. Scores are based on how strongly you express traits from 9 different Team Roles. One Person may exhibit multiple Roles. Now, I will leave you with the slide show: | View | Upload your own Read more about it, or have your team analyzed at: http://www.belbin.com/ Interests 2008-06-15T16:58:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/4-hours-24-films-pangea-day/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/4-hours-24-films-pangea-day/#When:14:28:00Z Today is Pangea Day. People all over the world will come together to share a common experience: watching films made by the world for the world. We like to call it the first global campfire. Pangea Day is a 4-hour live broadcast featuring powerful films, visionary speakers, and inspiring music that will reach millions through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim created Pangea Day after winning the prestigious TED Prize, which grants winners “one wish to change the world.” Jehane’s wish: “To bring the world together through the power of film. The first step toward world peace is to meet the other.” If you are in Kuwait, head on over to the College of Medicine, in Jabriya, where they will be a live broadcast at MD Cinema starting at 9pm local time. If you’re not in Kuwait, find an event held near you by visiting Pangea Day website. You can also watch it in person, online, on your mobile phone, or on TV. More details can be found at: http://www.pangeaday.org/howToWatch.php I only wish I was home to get my friends together and shoot a “Imagine! Kuwait sings for Japan” video. This one is my favorite, Imagine! France sings for USA . I love the production! Interests 2008-05-10T14:28:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/wufoo-forms/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/wufoo-forms/#When:20:35:00Z While I was preparing for my Microsoft sessions, I decided I would like to get some feedback from the students. So, I tried a new online service and I am amazed and excited about it. Wufoo is dedicated to creating online forms and surveys. It’s really easy to use and within minutes you can have everything up and running. Even though the conference was canceled, I decided to keep my form online for the sake of demonstrating what you can do with Wufoo. The page is available online at: http://bahrain.wufoo.com/forms/heroes and fill it up while your at it! The free version of Wufoo account allows you to create 3 forms with a limit to add up to 10 questions in each one. The paid version gives you a lot more features and the packages are at a reasonable price range. What I loved most is how you can link each form to a CSS file from your web server, and that way you control every pixel on it! The reports generated are also very handy and neat! They can also be exported as excel or cvs. Arabic is supported! No experience is required to use the WYSIWYG service. I highly recommend it! Site: http://www.wufoo.com Reviews 2008-05-07T20:35:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/geek-flow-chart/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/geek-flow-chart/#When:22:15:00Z Recently appeared in The New York Times, oh the accuracy is freaking me out too! Check out the larger version. via: PicoCool Tech 2008-05-06T22:15:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/no-supernova/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/no-supernova/#When:13:03:00Z Unfortunately, the Supernova IT Conference at University of Bahrain that I was invited to speak in was canceled at the very last minute. My VS 2008 session was the first in the program, so I was ready to go, twittered away and as soon as I put my phone down I got the call. ”We’re sorry. It’s not going to happen. It’s not in our hands”. I was shocked. Not because it got canceled, but more over how it was canceled just an hour before the launch! Well, I hope, whatever it was, that it works out for the students who organized the event. They really have put so much effort! Setting up a 5 day IT event isn’t easy. Wishing you all the best! Bahrain 2008-05-04T13:03:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/it-event-at-university-of-bahrain-and-i-am-presenting/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/it-event-at-university-of-bahrain-and-i-am-presenting/#When:06:18:00Z First off, today is Shutdown Day and apparently, I will not be participating this year. I need every minute I can with all the CPUs around me today. April has been such a crazy month! Which brings me off to announce that tomorrow an IT event (a.k.a. Supernova) will kick off at the University of Bahrain in Sukhir campus. This event has been organized by the students of the IT department in the same university. I was invited by Microsoft to present two sessions during the 5 day event that begins on May 4th until May 8, 2008. A closing ceremony will be on the 11th of May. My first session will be tomorrow, at 11am, so if you’re around drop by! I will be talking about Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and in my second session on May 7th, also at 11am, I will be rambling about XNA Studio 2.0. Hopefully they’ll have some gamers out there in the audience, I have no idea! It will definitely be fun, I am bringing in an XBOX 360 for a lucky winner. Microsoft, Bahrain 2008-05-03T06:18:00+03:00 http://ahamshay.com/comments/3-geeks-in-an-elevator/ http://ahamshay.com/comments/3-geeks-in-an-elevator/#When:20:41:00Z Lots of things can happen in an elevator when you’re stuck in there for some time. Bil Simser had started this Internet meme experiment and I thought I would participate! If I were to be stuck in an elevator with two other (living) geeks, they’d have to be Heather Solomon and Natalya Voskresenskaya. It would be really nice. We’d talk about SP , design and life. Being locked up in an elevator with two geeks, who would they be? what would you talk about? Blogging 2008-04-16T20:41:00+03:00