Sunday, July 06, 2008

Imagine Cup 2008

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”.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

WUFOO forms

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

(8) Comments | Filed under: Reviews |

Geek Flow Chart

Recently appeared in The New York Times, oh the accuracy is freaking me out too! Check out the larger version.

via: PicoCool

(7) Comments | Filed under: Tech |

Saturday, May 03, 2008

IT event at University of Bahrain, and I am presenting!

talking to furniture [practice] makes perfect

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.

(11) Comments | Filed under: Microsoft | Bahrain |

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Bahrain Air, SharePoint and E-Gate!

The past few days have been really awesome. I was able to attend the first Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Dubai. (link: http://www.sharepointconferencedubai.com )

I bought my tickets online from Bahrain Air since it was the earliest flight available. Arrival would be 9.20am and the conference starts at 9am. The good news was that it takes place at Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel - just five minutes away from the airport. The booking process was very similar to Jazeera Airways, except that you don’t get to choose your seat on the flight.

This was my first time on Bahrain Air. The plane was small and packed with people. Once we landed, I decided that Jazeera was way better in comparison! First, Dua’a elSafar (travel supplication) was announced on speaker so fast by some attendant’s voice and I couldn’t follow up! Then, after the plane took off, TV screens were all up and running shows like “Just kidding” followed by an Arabic comedy. But that wasn’t the problem at all, they had the audio playing on speaker, so no one could get any rest if they’d wanted to. The plane had a weird smell to it, and it wasn’t because it was packed. I was glad I had the conference to look forward to, so I just tried to be patient. Yes, water was served - in the smallest plastic cups possible. Other than that, everything was good.