Radio Guide Update: 99.9 FM on the run; Radio Rotana

Radio Nagham, soft broadcasting on 99.9 FM finally got a new Identity since "Nagham" was just a soft openning name, 99.9 FM is officially Radio Rotana

The Davinci Code (Part 2)

seems some1 is reading Jordan Planet guys !

The english original edition of The Divinci Code is not banned anymore .. !
yup, U can go & get it from any Aramex Media stand or shop coz its available for less than 10 JDs...

The interesting thing that i've noticed is that the english edition has less Nr of pages & page sizes than the arabic version ...
hehe,,, we arabs are known in "KATRET EL 7AKEE" ;)

I mean why should our patriarchy ask the gov to Ban it while it's available in the mainly "Christians countries" without any problem ,,,,

Thank god some1 is reading us ;)

Jordan's IT Companies, Nothing But ****!

As I've already said before in 1 of the posts, i'll be discussing in this post the suffer I had along with some of my colleagues trying to get training during this summer in IT companies in Jordan.

1st of all, just to tell U, Training for IT students in our college is optional , therefore, from our 2002 class only 4 students dare to try looking for training for this summer, including yours truly.

being optional, training hunt for us is more like looking for a Job, which's good to be honest with u, it makes u more familiar with the suffer u'll have 1 year or less later! we got our CVs ready, a big list of companies with their contact Nrs & emails, Recommendations from the lecturers, Mobile Phones Ready & heavily charged, Amman's urban transport routes' map Ready, our feet ready for long walks ... & HERE WE COME!

yeah, we were all very excited about the whole thing, we all were aiming high in the sky... but ...
BANG!
what a slam in the face, here we are now after 2.5 months of continuous search (having started with the whole issue since the beginning of May) :

FAIEZ: Looked even for companies non member in INTAJ & still nothing.

AMR: no summer courses,no training,,, just waking daily after mid day still hoping for 1 of his WASTA's to call, despite they all ZA7LAGOOLO along with his WASTAs.

EHAB: haven't I told u!? he gave up wayyyy ago, since June!

ME: .......... no comment!

allow me here to tell u some stories that happened between each & every 1 of us, since we were looking each separately of course, between us & some Jordanian “Te5nology” companies members in INTAJ, those are not all the companies of course, those are just (THE FUNNY) list! other companies mainly apologized thru the phone when calling them, or at least their secretaries did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is Jordan, a country ruled by Secretaries rather than Professionals who are to busy in launch meetings in which they “mainly” decide when the next meeting should be!

– Javna: for those who don't know, this company is situated in the industrial City / Al Baiader! I don't know if they have AMD tyres coz my machine is Intel :P they unfortunately said, I read : “sorry, we have already ONE trainee, we can't have more!”.

– Aregon: Those are a very serious IT / Business group consisting of 4 companies, we had to take a date to visit the company & bring personal photos along with the CV, being there we had a 9 pages exam & form that we had to fill, the exam was more about self-esteem & personality tests, IQ, & english exams.
Both Me & Faiez had the chance to apply for this company. They never called us even. grrrr, I want my photos back !

– NCR: those guys transferred our phone call to sth called (The Maintenance Department) to discuss this issue with them !!!!! WE ARENT BROKEN GUYS!

– National Technology Corp: those too have a Maintenance department in charge of hiring & training, after they switched the phone call between offices for about 3 minutes, an automated Central Voice said: “Ur phone call must end now!” & shut the line!

– Integrant: which is a US based company! who ever (TEEEET) lady who answered my call simply replied: “La2 7abibi, ma fee 3enna tadrib” & Shut the phone on my face!
I felt I'm an 8th grade school boy or sth!
upon that, having the managers email from the Intaj website, I dropped him a line, saying in it that I'm sending the CV thru email coz of the incident that happened with me.... no reply till now!

– Fastlink: Respect to the company the trains the biggest Nr of Students in Jordan, despite our believe that we have approximately nothing to do in telecom companies but we said to give it a shot, we have been accepted to come & apply in OCTOBER, so that we MIGHT get training NEXT SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

– Mobilecom: only Amr tried this 1, convincing us not even to dare to try,,, the 1st say : Yeah, no problem, consider ur self in, so bring us the official paper “KETAB” from ur dean, Amr brought it, then they said, no way, u must have at least 3-4 certifications (or as they told him: “6ash7a” )to train here... so Amr of course used the final method: WASTA , a WASTA that he can depend on as he said... ZA7LAGOOLO!

– Umniah: yup, I dared for it too, I went to Mr Michale Dagher's office before the company had placed it's logo on the Building all of u know to be Umniah's Headquarter. the guys at Michale's office (which is located in the culture street by the way) welcomed me & gave me the Direct Nr of the HR department, & told me about the Headquarter building. So, I called the HR, the lady answered with 1 word: “It's Full”, I've explained to her that I don't wanna work not even in the Customer Care, it's just that I'm a trainee ,,, she kept silent for about 30 secs & said again : “Aham, It's Full!” & shut the phone!
after this phone call with about 3 hours I was at Umniah's Headquarters, guess what, they have put a paper at the door that this guy (Me) is not allowed for Training Apply inside nor any trainee at all! I've written a letter at that moment explaining why I've chosen this company & the capabilities 3G tech offers & my visions about it .... yada yada ... & appended it to My CV & left it at the door ..... I guess it made it to the closest bin after i left from there!

– ABUL HAJ Center Companies: in Abul Haj Center there are 12 companies, Faiez got them all in 1 shot! none of them even accepted to take the CV from him! Gosh, they dont have Trash Bins even!

– Menhaj: Financial problems, they only fire , don't hire!

– Maktoob.com: Faiez Tried those out last September, despite the fact he was still just getting into the 3rd year, the guy had fair enough knowledge & skills in Web prog, & powerful in OOP & methodologies. They accepted him, but guess for what task?! can I get any Ideas dear readers ,,,, U wont get it , I guarantee! He assigned him to check the discussion forums every day & erase the posts with in proper language & Bad words !!!!! ah, and delete the emails coming to the suggestions area!!
I Mean,,, what the Hell! He quitted after 4 or 5 days..!

– ITG: Now I don't know what's the real story behind us not getting training in there!? we applied (Both Me & Faiez), they called, asked what we like, called again cooperating with us about the times we can be available. & even called that they'll be soon calling us to confirm when to start! Then, simply abandoned us! by coincidence both me & Faiez happened to had gone bored & decided (without cooperating) to check what's the deal since they didnt call back for over 10 days after when they were supposed to, Faiez went in Person, I called ....WE WERE BOTH TOLD THAT: They took trainees already long time ago, at a moment they said (Are You Sure U have applied to THIS Company!) ,,, & finally declaring with proud that they took already TOW trainees & we're not Them apparently !!!! DUH! They took a graphics student & one that “knows” ASP.NET as they told Faiez ... WHAT!?!!!!! Graphics!!!!! What about 3D Canvas Programming, AI, Sun Certified Programmers, PHP, Oracle, Linux & Unix Platform experience (since they deliver products on those platforms) , Software Engineering tools use, Software Design Patterns Experience, HCI & experience in Customer Social & Psychological interaction with SW & GUI !!! what about .. .. .. .. .. WHERE THE HELL IS MY CV COZ I WANNA BURN IT ... I got out of minds writing this post & I Dont wanna continue .... HELL YA I NEED TRAINNING !

Radio Guide Update: Radio Amman Net 92.4 FM

A new Station starting on 92.4 FM (yup, another bad frequency gap, only 0.4 Mhz to Mood FM's 92.0 FM) , anyway, the station of course is transmitting in the capital on this wave & It's called (Sout Al- Mojtama3) Radio Amman-Net ... that is “Voice of Society” in English, & It is the FM station Radio Amman-net announced earlier this year it will be releasing. The station is still in it's very beginning of Soft opening, it will be a Public Service Radio,, as Radio Amman Net was & still on the Internet, a PR FINALLY!!

I hope it's soft Opening wont last forever like some Arabic stations that are on the airwaves since 3-4 months now & still not announcing their name on air even! just playing non stop music all the time without any action! nor even Jingles to promote their selves ! just Tune-in to 97.1 & 99.9 for 2 hours each & try to figure out their names!!!! U wont if u haven't check my Radio Guide !! like if their owners payed the license money, bought all those transmission stuff & forgot all about it!

I’m sure Amman Net won’t go that way, it’s already "ON" for several years thru the internet & Finally we’re having Amman Net FM.

Thanx for Mr Dave Kernick from the BBC for his feedback on my Radio Guide.

Radio Guide Update: Karakee Private Station, Soon...!

About 8-10 days ago, Mr Rakan Al-Dhmoor , an ex-technician & professional in Radio Jordan Broadcasting Corp. had his dream of making a private local station visible in front of his eyes,,, just around the Corner let's say :) ... that is when he made a test transmission of his yet-to-open local radio station in Karak with some “not that great” instruments , but fare enough to cover Karak's Area & villages around within a range of 4 KMs.

It's not declared yet when the station will start, nor the official frequency it will be broadcasting on, but I know that this will be the 1st Local Private Radio Station. That will, as declared cover the local events & activities, beside broadcasting Local news & public messages.

Interesting, right ?! what shall I say Hoping for better Radio Services for the public in Jordan,, Way to Go!!!

KsCD – The Smartest CD Player EVER!

If u happen to have Linux, with a KDE Graphical Interface, check your programs Menu or packages again coz U might just Have it!

KsCD is one heck of a smart Powerful CD player software, provided by KDE, despite it's a very simple small Software that does nothing but playing Audio CDs, It's not a MultiMedia Player. I really couldn't find any MM Win32 Software that has this specialized power in Playing Audio CDs. AT ALL!

here's what is sooooo good about it:
– Scratched skippy CD? No Problem, KsCD has that strong Control upon the CD drive Hardware making the best out of it. Many of My old Rewind CD-R CDs that are running Badly on Softwares like Jet Audio & Windows Media Player, not to mention regular CD players & Diskmans that give an error at start up, Just Go Perfect on KsCD, I can still remember how impressed the 1st time I ran a CD on it on My Mandrake Linux.
– on Any, Absolutely Any Win32 CD player SW, u'll be annoyed by a pop saying you aren't connected to the internet & That You must Connect in order to Have Your CD Track Tags,,,, the SW will keep annoying U until U try to shut this service down from the Softwares settings.

Here, Just pop the CD in,, & THERE You Go, The Artist, the Album
Title, & The Entire LIST of all the Tracks!!!!!!!!!!! weather Your CD is original or a CD-R , HELL YA, Your Getting It ALL!

Well,Ok, not really, but it does with having Internet (Don't Tell Me that I might have connected,,, I DONT HAVE A FIXED PHONE LINE!), The Thing Goes That as well as Your CD-R was compiled using an Audio CD Burner from Files on Your PC, the Name of the Original Files U have burned Your CD from (& Dont worry, I'm not talking about CDs burned locally nor Files tracks that already exist on my PC) & If U happened to give a name of Artist & Album for Ur Compilation, Yes it will Appear ;)

& indeed if U happen to have copied from an Original CD, The Original CD Info will be inherited & will appear on the KsCD while playing the Copy, & indeed the Original CD, which will Sure been compiled & Made using high enough Tech so that U'll be able to get some Artist info embedded as well :)

Of Course KsCD have the Internet DB source as well, but simply without U getting annoyed by 10s of Pop Up Msg Boxes making U guilty of not being connected, khalas if no internet, thats it!
You too can get into this DB supporting KsCD, simply goto : http://freedb.org

it's just that this lil piece of SW stuck in my mind for all those years, & It really deserve to talk about.

Think Big, Think Linux, Cause there's a Penguin for Everyone ;)

PS: Despite KsCD is not a new Software or invention , I just wanted to talk about it for the respect I keen for it!

The Davinci Code

Finally I got my hands on this book that made a big noise all over the world.

I've been annoying those at Aramex Media since ages about it. & they keep telling me that the patriarchy has asked the government to ban it.

& Finally I got it yesterday from Prime Megastore (one of my favorite places that i spend hours in).

actually i got the arabic-translated version of the book, when asking about the original english version they told me: “Nope, That 1 is banned!”

anyway, I got the book.. it's on my “to read” list for this summer.. so if any of U dear readers get into one of those urban buses & find a guy holding this book while sitting or standing... this shall be me ;)

& hey, Prime got a Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide bunch of new albums, all fresh & new... I hvn't been to prime since the beginning of the finals, I was really surprised with the new collections they got: the got the latest by Gorillaz, ColdPlay, Nine Inch Nails, Sepultura, Oasis ... & Much much more.... it worths a visit if u havent been there for the last 2 weeks or so.

HawaKEE!

yupkee!! I was in a visit to Karak yesterday benefiting from my dad starting a new project in there, i just woke up, went to Abdali, took the We7dat Urban-Bus, got into a KarakEE bus from the southern Bus station .. & Here We GO!
hehe,when My father called us around 12 PM as usual, at a moment he stopped the speech & said: “Hey! YOU ARE IN FRONT OF ME!” Hehe!

Getting to the point, this whole post is about my visit to the Karak Castle, which took most of the time of my visit.

1st of all: Entrance Fees.. 0.15 JD!!!!!!
yup, only 15Qirsh! 22 US Cents, 18 Euro Cents!
I've never been to a touristic place in this whole wide world paying only 15 Qirsh ! inclusive the entrance to the Castle Museum!!! ever!

& don't worry non-resident visitors, its only 1 JD for you, which is the Minimum fee of entrance in any other touristic place in jordan for Jordanians !!!!!

The nice thing in this cheep entrance thing is that U'll be asked to write Ur name & info down in a guests book at the entrance (or only 1 person if U R a family, which was our case) after which the KaraKEE employee smiles & says: “Ya Hala BalDhaif” & simply refuses to take the 15 Qirsh/Person fees !!!!!!! we simply got in for free!

It was windy yesterday in Karak, So at the castle we had a good fresh windy treat being on the top of a mountain between open deep valleys, the speed of wind was maybe over 60 Km/h, especially that wind blowing from the western valley with the Dead-sea appearing at its end..... oooh! I still feel the wind blowing into my mind!
actually this wind is the motivation for this post's subject.

It's like, I Know everything about this castle & about the history of Karak, but being there yesterday simply made me (Live The Experience!). The castle, for those who don't know, was the center of Leadership for the City of Karak. Karak, as a town was actually a fortress! the ancient city of Karak was built on the top of the “Castle Mountain” if i can call it so, which is nowadays “the Old Karak” that was developed in the Ottoman times. This mount was surrounded as a whole by Great walls beside the natural surrounding of Valleys. so it wasn't just the castle as many people think, but the whole city was a magnificent big Fortress.

Being on location, I really got impressed by 2 things: How the castle was built, & how it was captured By Salah El-Deen with all those capabilities it had! there R too many underground levels so that i've forgotten to count them! really an impressive building.

getting down to the Museum, which is in one of those managed underground levels, another guests-book is waiting for you in here at the reception, the museum shows & discusses not only the history of Karak & the Fortress, but the whole area along all eras of time.

I don't wanna get it longer in this post, it's just a final note that the Castle site is surrounded by many well-managed touristic services, The Castle restaurant is very good, & suitable even for big groups or events (this's upon My Father's review since they had the Contract signing ceremony of their project in it) .... & he says they have Excellent KarakEE Mansaf ;) along with all other kinds of food.

All My respects for the Municipality of karak, Ministry of Tourism in Karak & the Karak Re-Building Project. & Hey, if U go to Karak don't forget to pass by “Karak Panorama” in the Marj area.

ENJOYKEE!!