Planet.Syriamirror.net - Ayman Hourieh's Blog

Syria Planet

Wed, 8 Mar 2006 12:47:44 +0200

Syria Planet, the community site for Syrian bloggers, is now online, it features an aggregator of member blogs (Syrian or about Syria), and forums for arranging activities and meetings, and discussing what's going on in Syria and the blogosphere, among the other things.

Tips to Secure Linux Workstation

Sun, 5 Mar 2006 17:44:43 +0200

While waiting for ADSL to be enabled in my area, which (I've been told) will happen soon, I did some tinkering with my Gentoo Linux workstation to make it more protected against remote attacks, and I thought of compiling a list of security measures against the dangers of full-time Internet connection. Obviously the list is not complete, but it has tips that can surely help.

Have A Problem? Blame The US!

Thu, 2 Mar 2006 00:01:41 +0200

Some people here have a habit of blaming the US government for almost everything bad that happens to the Arab or Islamic worlds, for them America is the root of all evil, and they manage to create a conspiracy theory involving the US around every single event they don't like, while I blame clerics and media for this, I won't discuss the details, instead I'll talk about an example in which a conspiracy theory that exceeds logic still manages to find its way here.

Last Two Weeks Round-up

Wed, 1 Mar 2006 23:19:40 +0200

I haven't blogged in a while, sometimes I was busy with work or uni, other times I didn't feel like posting, I have a long list of things to blog about, will start with what I think is an interesting topic later tonight, this post is going to be a quick round up of the last two weeks.

Got a Digital Camera: Sony Cybershot S600

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 00:42:39 +0200

I got a digital camera, it's a Sony CyberShot S600, I was looking for a point-and-shoot digital camera that supports Linux, I'm very new to photography so I didn't want anything fancy with manual controls or anything, setting everything to auto is more than enough for me.

Site Theme Improvements

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 19:40:38 +0200

I did further improvements to the site's theme, first I switched from fixed-width to a fluid layout, the main reason is making use of more screen space for posting images (more on this in the next post), I also changed a couple of colors and created a new favicon.

Slashdot Blocks Syrian ISP

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:44:37 +0200

It's the Syrian Telecom who usually bans websites here, but this time it's the other way around, Slashdot has just banned a Syrian ISP's proxy server (SCS-NET), I'm getting the following when trying to browse Slashdot through SCS-NET:

Attending FOSDEM 2006

Tue, 7 Feb 2006 20:53:36 +0200

Tomorrow I will apply for a visa at the Belgian embassy, the reason is attending FOSDEM (an Open Source developers meeting), I was invited by Mozilla Foundation, which generously offered to cover flight expenses, the meeting has a very interesting schedule, there will be a Mozilla developers room with an interesting schedule as well.

No4Denmark.com vs. SupportDenmark.com, or Why The Current Islamic Campaign Won't Work

Sat, 4 Feb 2006 22:07:35 +0200

While going through the Blogosphere reading posts on both sides of the crisis, I noticed that some sites have buttons or banners to show support for either side, a quick glance through No4Denmark.com and SupportDenmark.com clearly showed why the Islamic world is failing to explain its point of view to the west.

Jyllands-Posten Cartoons, Muslim Humiliation Or Hysteria?

Fri, 3 Feb 2006 16:53:34 +0200

The other day I happened to watch TV, it was a talkshow on bluetooth security from a user point of view, viewers could call in and ask questions or comment on the topic, someone called and started to ramble on the "ethical dangers" of bluetooth, then and out of a sudden, he moved to talk about the cartoons thing, it started with something like (translated from Arabic): "And just like how bluetooth is dangerous, so are the cartoons that offended millions of Muslims everywhere, Everyone boycott Danish products! ...", at that point I was like: enough already! What on earth does this topic has to do with basic bluetooth security? The whole cartoons thing has turned into a hysteria out of control.

A Planet for Syrian Blogs

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 22:51:33 +0200

We, a group of Syrian bloggers, have created a planet that gathers Syrian blog feeds, it's still in the initial stages, check it out at planet.syriamirror.net.

Flatforum Updated For Drupal 4.7 And PHP 5

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 14:16:32 +0200

Flatforum has been updated to be compatible with Drupal 4.7 and PHP 5, for those interested, please test the CVS package, and report any remaining issues.

Firefox and Middle-click Clipboard -> URL

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 22:05:31 +0200

Here is a quick tip for Firefox users under Linux, if you find loading the current text in clipboard as a URL when middle-clicking on the current page annoying, then go to: about:config, search for middlemouse.contentLoadURL and set it to false.

Exploring Modern Linux Media Players

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 21:00:30 +0200

I have used XMMS for my music playing needs since my first days with Linux, it looked and acted like Winamp, and back then this was more than enough for me, years passed, XMMS hardly improved, but I kept using it, recently I started looking for alternatives, although XMMS was doing its job, I thought there might be new features in the world of Linux music players that I was missing.

Exclamation/Question Marks Law

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 20:40:29 +0200

Number of consecutive exclamation or question marks is inversely proportional to poster's intelligence.

Has this been said before? I googled around to find out, this page is as close as I could get, if not, I declare it a new Internet law.