Don't Say Geek! Say Syntux!

Big companies like Amazon, Apple and Sony are fighting for the best device to deliver digital books and I’m loving that as it will only increase get consumer more features for less but yet content is everything I care about.

I’m a book geek, I don’t mind reading on iPhone, my Mac Book or buy an eReader as long as I can get the content I’m interested in.

Kindle is more than a device

Kindle seems to have advantage over any current competitor or even the rumored one, Apple tablet. The advantages as I see them are in the large collection of books that amazon have plus the new publishers program, add to that the Soft Kindle on Windows, iPhone and Mac (Coming soon). Basically you should look at Kindle as a service accessible everywhere unlike any other devices that are just devices.

We don’t know much about the rumored Apple tablet but the competition would be to get more out of those who fancy getting an eReader rather than using the Soft ones.

I like the idea of getting a device but I also want the luxarious ability to resume whatever I started reading using the eReader on my MacBook too, would that be offered by the rumored Apple tablet or Amazon Kindle when they release the soft Kindle for Mac?

Another thing, I would love to see integration between Questia.com and Kindle or Apple tablet. It’s going to be sad to buy Kindle or Apple tablet without being able to access my favorite library on Questia.

The world’s largest online collection of complete books, journals and articles, searchable by word, phrase, title, author, or subject.

Hope the war will end soon for the consumer benefit and hope to see Questia part of the benefits.

Tags: amazon kindle, apple tablet, macbook, consumer benefit, favorite library, ereader, mac book, digital books, iphone, collection of books, competitor, publishers, sony, magazine, newspaper, journals

I just switched to Mac two months ago and to be honest, I’m enjoying it to the max. Of course, switching to Mac isn’t that easy, switching to another operating system include a lot of phases. First you should familiarize yourself with the general system use, finding reliable applications to get the job done and digging deeper to understand the system, which I haven’t reached yet.

One thing I noticed about the switch, once you’re a Mac user, you’re apps consumer! Seriously, you will start considering purchasing applications that works, unlike the philosophy behind GNU/Linux, in Mac you got to pay for apps; which is fine, but you don’t get the source, with few exceptions.

On the other side, the usability of Mac is a scene of inexpressible beauty. Everything is well studied and planned, you will even find things that you wouldn’t expect that someone thought of. Aside from the apps usability, the hardware is beautiful, yes Mac is Intel now and everything is Intel these days, but it works as advertised unlike my two fancy-on-time-of-purchase Toshiba laptops and dead-six-months-later.

There are plenty free of charge applications for Mac, but some apps are really unique, basically an art and therefore you have to pay for it if you really want it. So my first Mac tip would be to keep an eye on some Mac bundles, discounts and offers websites.

• http://www.mupromo.com/
• http://themacbundles.com/
• http://dealmac.com/categories/Computer/Computer-Software/124.html
• http://www.macheist.com/

Personally, I haven’t purchased any application yet but I have list of apps that I’m interested in, I will give it some time and if I couldn’t find a decent replacement then buying it is the choice.

Tags: toshiba laptops, purchase toshiba, mac tip, gnu linux, switching to mac, mac user, usability, computer software.exceptions, six months, operating system, intel, philosophy, toshiba, linux, job

The former owner decided to quit programming and advocacy and we saw the potential of this blog to grow so we arranged for a good deal with him and now it’s under new management!

We will keep blogging about the same topics but probably will expand the theme and there will be more frequent updates.

If you have this blog on official/professional aggregator please remove it [ or keep it] as it doesn’t belong to the same owner any more.

Tags: frequent updates, new management, aggregator, advocacy, blog

I have been away from this blog for many reasons starting from personal decision to quit the professional programming life so I can go back to my real thing which is Politics ending with the lack of a better option; However I’m sure the years of programming life would have influence on my next step in life but not sure how yet.

I’m still interested in opening vim and coding but probably from now on it’s going to be for fun only; however I hope the theory that says if you code for fun you might end up making a profit more than you planned would work but yet I’m not going to spend lots of time on it as I decided to take a different path now.

The last straw was when I decided to resign from Dot.Jo (Which is an amazing company) to put more efforts on Ubuntu Community in the Kingdom and Arab world. Thankfully we succeed but partially due to the recession hit. It didn’t allow longer breath especially with the lack of sponsorship, we were so close to have National Open Source Office but I’d blame the recession and probably some other factors.

I’ve also decided to hand out access of communities I was handling like Jolug and specifically Ubuntu Arabic team, Ubuntu Jordan to some new blood; The good ones are taken seems to be true in communities case, all qualified people I approached were bloody busy to handle anything and right now Ubuntu Arabic and Ubuntu Jordan on idle mode.

As a amateur programmer from now on I might try to play with Django but not sure how it will go with the limited time for my hobbies but I will do my best to keep this blog updated at least with some general stuff but of course will try to stay away from iPhone VS android war; but don’t take it as a promise ;). I will also try contribute to Ubuntu Community, at least seasonally.

Until the next post.

Tags: programming life, professional programming, iphone, personal decision, last straw, different path, new blood, django, android, arab world, recession, limited time, programmer, sponsorship, jordan, hobbies, open source, blog

Be there or be square

LPI Candidates and Alumni:

In 2009, LPI will mark its 10th Anniversary as an organization serving Linux professionals. To recognize this milestone we will be undertaking a number of new initiatives–including as many of you already know the
launch of our LPIC-3 303 Security elective (February 1, 2009) and the new LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 exams (April 1, 2009).

We will also host a number of informative and educational webcasts. These webcasts will provide information on our certification program and even assist our candidates with exam preparation. On this initiative we will be working with BrightTalk (http://www.brighttalk.com) — a provider of online webcasting services.

We invite everyone to participate in our pilot summit on December 17, 2008. This pilot event will enable us to develop an audience profile which will assist BrightTalk to find sponsors for future such events in 2009. Please
register for these online presentations through our webpage at:

http://www.lpi.org/eng/about_lpi/upcoming_events/lpi_webcasts

We would also appreciate your feedback on these presentations, ideas for future webcasts, or even volunteers who might want to provide their own presentations!. Please contact us at info { a t } lpi [ d o t ] org should you have any questions in this regard.

Again we invite you all to attend our webcasts on December 17, 2008. Please register at:

http://www.lpi.org/eng/about_lpi/upcoming_events/lpi_webcasts

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and a prosperous and successful 2009!

Sincerely,
Scott Lamberton
Director of Communications
Linux Professional Institute

Tags: linux professional institute, pilot event, audience profile, linux professionals, lpic, webcasting services, 10th anniversary, lamberton, happy new year, webcast, new year, volunteers, upcoming events, initiatives