Sc@-tt3r-ed Thoughts

I felt compelled to create this post on my blog due a recent experience I had with Mimosa Systems: An email-archiving solution that I had the misfortune of getting involved with for my school district.

Before I continue with this account, let me qualify myself, as to not risk the possibility of losing your attention, under the pretext of being “just another disgruntled customer”.

I am an IT professional for 12 years now, and have been specifically involved in system administration, engineering, architecture and design, for most of that period. I have implemented quite a few robust products and infrastructures: i.e: Exchange 2000, 2003, migration from Active Directory to 2000 to 2003, full implementation of VMWare vSphere  4.0, VMWare View 3.5 and 4.0, multiple SANs, Digital Imaging solutions (Viatron), Desktop Management solutions (LANDesk) to name a few. I have done most of those, either on my own, or with the assistance of an implementation company, or working directly with a manufacturer. All this to say that I have had enough experience to know the difference between a professional service, well designed product, efficient implementation, and the polar opposite of the former.

The reason I felt the need to write this review is because I (my school district) has been robbed close to a $100,000 from  Mimosa Systems, with not so much as an apology, ok, not a sincere one at least.

..Continue reading..

Ok honestly, I’m not pondering anything with this one, though for some reason, I found the facts in it extremely intriguing, and if nothing else, it made me just think about where our world is heading, or at least try to imagine. This presentation address US Labor vs world labor, as well as education issues, and technologies, I guess I just wasn’t quite aware of some of these numbers, they left me gasping in surprise in some instances, I hope it would be some food for thought for you too..

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I was browsing my facebook profile today, and one of my friends posted a news report about the fur industry, and they showed some really gruesome footage of some of the ways that fur is manufactured (in China, by the way), even though all brand names are proud to claim to be Italian made… Oh well… Look at this video, and perhaps, you may re-evaluate your “need” to buy fur clothing…

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Here’s my thought on the media: they suck. Since there wasn’t anything interesting enough for the media anymore, they dropped the situation Lebanon off the face of the earth. that makes me not want to ever listen to it anymore, because as soon as something slightly more interesting comes up, they move straight to it… oh well..  I still get my interesting news from my dad, so here’s today’s little snippet for that:

As for us here, things are in a freezing mode, and no one can predict what will come next as all are still on the highest alert status, and you hear from one side or the other that they are preparing for another round! So say that it will be regional this time, meaning Iran and Syria can be involved, and there are some news that the “”Lebanese forces”” started to re-train… so does it mean that we will get back to the civil war??  Who knows… 

As for the business, there is nothing still, so I am not going to the office because I don’t want to spend fuel without getting anything back…I go there once a week to see if there is anything special that I should do… and this situation applies to most business in the country…  just for your information, our sales the whole last month was about $ 200 … yes just two hundred, and I had to pay Milia’s salary which is about 3 times this amount not to mention the other expenses… so, this is the situation…. We are opening till 2:00 PM and sometimes there is no electricity, so we leave even a bit earlier…  days pass without a single phone call or a door open which is really depressing! But all is beyond control.

Yesterday, Rami, Nissrine Doris Teta salwa, and Pat and Mich came to us and spend the night and all the day today… and now Nadim and Randa will follow to we can do so food on the saj just to refresh ourselves a bit, and try to be distracted from thinking about the situation we are in ! 

so … do you think it’s over yet? People living in Lebanon don’t seem to think so, so all we can do now is keep your fingers crossed to see what’s going to happen.

I have talked to my parents yesterday to get an update on the situation in Lebanon. Fortunately, they’re still safe. Resources are still getting lower and lower by the day.

At this point, there is no more gas in the country, and there is at least an hour wait at any gas station to get gas, and that is only to get about $6 worth of gas… do the math … so my dad is going down to work only about twice a week now, and once his tank is empty, they’ll pretty much be staying home. Same goes for electricity, there are some fuel ships awaiting to enter Lebanon to supply fuel for power plants, however, these are not being allowed to go in, so at this rate, in about 1 or 2 weeks, there will be no more electricity, and we’ll go back to the stone age with candles.

Food seems to still be available in moderate quantities, so that’s not to worry about for now. As I speaking with my dad, we are starting to have talks about alternatives of communication (if at all possible) if we actually do loose communication. Obviously, if there is no electricity, E-Mail communication will cease, as well as as probably phone services, especially that Israel is threatening to destroy any communications channels that Huzbollah might be using, which is sometimes the same channels that the rest of the population uses.

This morning, I received a couple of pictures from my sister. no worries, nothing gory this time, but interesting nonetheless. If you’ve been hearing the news, you might have heard of the city of Dahieh, which is mostly muslims, with a lot of Huzbollah in it, the following is a before and after picture of it…
 

The next few pictures are from (what used to be) the Mdairej bridge, which is the highest bridge in the Middle East, or so I think.

The next few are the ”little smile” part of the post my sister’s email comment was that:

This why hizbolllah declared war???

In order to die in the hands of the Israel’ soldiers.

They found heaven on earth

Wow, I’m impressed!

So in the past couple of days i haven’t really posted, since I haven’t really been hearing too much about the situation other than what CNN and all the media says, but that’s stuff that you can read about yourself. Today, and yesterday, I’ve been hearing that the Israelis are starting to reach some of the Christian areas. I’m still not entirely sure about the reason as to why that’s happening, and whether Huzbollah is setting up rocket sites there as mentioned in a previous blog.

A little snippet from my dad’s email today mentioned something about that, so I’ll go ahead and include it here….

[...] As for the war situation today, it is getting into the Christian area where the Israelis bombarded 2 bridges in Jounieh Area, then one in Batroun (Bourj el Fidar) where we had our honeymoon… and Jbeil… on the other hand, the Ouzaai area, and Dahieh, were very heavily bombarded, so today, the streets even in our areas are almost empty. Micha and Pat did not go to work… but I drove down to Beirut as I was promised to get paid by a client… [...]

As you can see, business is so bad, that my dad has to risk driving down to work if he is promised a payment by a client.

Of course, all this in happening on a personal level, then on the media level, i gotta say that I’m sick of hearing about the false promises about wrapping this up. If I remember correctly, yesterday there was a promise in the media that there was going to be a negotiation yesterday that was going to wrap things up, but that same promise has happened 3 times now, so we’ll have to see happens.

Well I haven’t posted any updates in a couple of days, as I had not heard from my dad, and the reason was in his email. Apparently, going down to work (where he has the internet access) is useless, and a waste of money at this point, since gas prices are skyrocketting, and are starting to be available in low quantities. Fortunately, they are still safe, but economically, the situation is horrible, and as far as the war goes, check CNN and you will know about the details on that. Meanwhile, please read below for some details on what is happening wiht my family and their inside information about the situation.

You might have said where is Mich as I haven’t written for few days, but what happened is that I am not going down to Beirut for more one reason… first and main reason is that the fuel delivery is getting less and less, and we have to line up for about half an hour to fill 20 liters…  the second reason is that there is no business at all… the whole day passes without a single customer, besides, there is no electricity for almost half the day, and last thing, Milia is coming as she normally comes on foot, so we are keeping presence just in case.

On the other hand, and as you know, Aahed left about 2 weeks ago, and I have to do all the garden work, feeding and cleaning for the animals and birds, which needs at least 2 to 3 hours daily, plus a full 2 weekend days.

As for the war situation, I am sure you are following up the aggressiveness of both sides. And this Kanna massacre of about 57 civilians which were bombarded by the Israelis, but on the other hand, we hear from many sources that Hizbullah are not allowing the people to evacuate the South as they need them as a human shield, and they are hiding and launching their rockets from inside populated villages !! also they are hiding their rockets in the mosques and churches !!  so, both parties are not playing a fair game!! So far, there is no signs for a cease fire in the near future, and only God knows where we are going… 

Locally, there is a very large part of the Lebanese people who are against Hizbullah, where are there are some who are with him… so we always fear that clashes can start at any time especially that those refugees are challenging those who are taking care of them by putting the Hizbullah flags and the pictures of Hasan Nasrallah the leader of Hizbullah in the schools where they are living at present, and as you know, and especially in Christian areas, this is very irritating, and by the way, even the majority of the Sunnies and Druze are against Hizbullah.

I think we are living a terrible situation, and we do not  know how this disaster will end… so please keep praying for our situation…

I don’t know if “boring” is the correct word to describe this, but it’s starting to feel like this war in Lebanon is just not going anywhere, is it just me or does anyone share this feeling? it’s a bunch of destruction, and lives taken and a country being destroyed, and I’m afraid at the end of it, we’re going to end up at the same spot that we started with. I’ve been reading tayyar.org, and all I read is:

1- Bombing on so and so area
2- So and So talked with this and that person, and are discussing, or are “planning” to meet to discuss the situation in the middle.

**Meanwhile In the Middle East**
Houses are being bombed, civilians are dying, and officials are taking their sweet time to “discuss”.

Ok so now that my personal thoughts are out of the way, here are some facts from my dad’s email today.

[...] As for the situation here, it is sort of calm in our areas, and you can go and come without a problem. We still have fuel, but only the 98 octane (no 95) but still it is OK… you can still find almost everything you want from House Gas cylinders to vegetables (though more expensive due to high transportation costs), bread, meat, etc… but who will eat !! no appetite because you do not feel at ease though I am not looking to the TV any more because they are all a bunch of liars, and they never say what is really true!! In the south and Dahieh, the shelling and fights are still going on, but we can hardly hear them here in Achrafieh or Joura… the only concern we have is if they decide to bombard the Satellite station that we have near our home… I think nothing will happen to us personally, but we will not have any glass left in the house… other than that, all is good.

In Theopolis. Our church are taking refugees from Baalbek and the south and put them in the camp site and offer them food and whatever they need. The youth are cooking for them and offering assistance. Also, the BBS evangelical school in Mousaitbeh also opened their doors for refugees, and Dr. Riad is going there for medical assistance. I offered to volunteer with him in his mission, so if he needs me, I will go…

Camille my cousin and myself discussed the possibility of giving one of the houses in Bhamdoun to any of the refugees, so I told Ali that if he knows someone that needs to use this house, it is available for free…. [...]

Please come back for more updates.

Stay cool…

Good morning,

As you may have seen in the news, the situation in Lebanon is not getting any better. in fact, the bombing is getting closer and close to our area, and as you may see in the following email, my brother’n'law had to go and empty his clinic due to the close bombing around it. there is also an powerpoint presentation with some pictures of the situation there. BE WARNED!! IT IS VERY GRAPHIC! If you can’t take it, then please do not open the file: The Agressions against lebanon
Also, another graphic website: http://www.fromisraeltolebanon.info/ (again, please be warned about the graphical nature of the site… if you can’t see blood, dead people, etc … please don’t go there.

I have tried calling my parents this morning, but unfortunately, I am unable to get through, so I’m not really sure what is happening. My guess is that everyone is trying to contact their families in Lebanon that the phone lines are saturated. will update as soon as I have anything new.

UPDATE:

I just got hold of my parents over the phone. They seem to be at ease in their area. They are still able to find all resources (gas, food), though at sky rocketing prices. some of the gas is starting to be unavailable, but they are stocked up for a little while at least.
Some of my extended family have evacuated their houses to go to safer areas, as they are living on the outskirts of dangerous areas.
Other than that, everything is ok so far.

Following is the news from parents today:

As I promised, I am sending you a new description of our situation as of today…

As I said earlier, I did not come to Beirut yesterday because of the gasoline shortage, and there was no one coming to our office, so I thought I would stay home… in the afternoon, Pat received a phone call from the mall where his shop is that all the shop owners are emptying their shops including Mac Donald, the bank, and others because the shelling was very close (near Galerie Semman… just few 100 meters far) and part of the glass in the mall was broken, and the army from the casern in his area moved to the underground of that mall…  so, what we had to do is to rush there, and packed all his equipment, the eyeglasses and whatever we could carry, and brought them home… that reminded me of the old days when we used to rush, pack, load our goods and run away during the past 30 years of war!! You know, unfortunately I felt that I am becoming an expert in this job !!  As this operation was sort of dangerous, Micha was on the phone almost every 5 minutes just to check that we are still OK… once we came back home, and as she was so stressed, she collapsed with tears, and she started to breath heavily, so we were afraid that something wrong will happen to the baby… but thanks God, all went OK… attached you will see some photos of how we offloaded Pat’s goods in Aahed’s room !

This morning, while coming down, and just when I tipped down from the mountain side towards Beirut, the black smoke mixed with dust because of the shelling and the burning fuel tanks etc..  was filling the sky, the valleys up to the rim of the mountain… we could hardly see Beirut !!

Now, it is calm here in Beirut… I did not listen to the news this morning, but I assume there is no shelling on Dahyeh at this time…  I have forwarded to you some e-mails which I received from a friend in Holland that shows part of what is going on!!

This is all for today… and don’t expect any mails until Monday if we stay alive as I will not come to the office during the weekend…

Greetings to all at your side…..

 Here are some pictures from when my brother’n'law and my dad went to grab the equipment from the clinic:
    

 Below, is an excerpt that gives a quick history of Beirut up to the situation today, it’s an interesting reading…

Paradise Lost

Robert Fisk’s Elegy for Beirut

The Independent
July 19, 2006

Elegant buildings lie in ruins. The heady scent of gardenias gives way to the acrid stench of bombed-out oil installations. And everywhere terrified people are scrambling to get out of a city that seems tragically doomed to chaos and destruction. As Beirut – ‘the Paris of the East’ – is defiled yet again

In the year 551, the magnificent, wealthy city of Berytus – headquarters of the imperial East Mediterranean Roman fleet – was struck by a massive earthquake. In its aftermath, the sea withdrew several miles and the survivors – ancestors of the present-day Lebanese – walked out on the sands to loot the long-sunken merchant ships revealed in front of them.

That was when a tidal wall higher than a tsunami returned to swamp the city and kill them all. So savagely was the old Beirut damaged that the Emperor Justinian sent gold from Constantinople as compensation to every family left alive.

How does this happen to Beirut? For 30 years, I’ve watched this place die and then rise from the grave and then die again, its apartment blocks pitted with so many bullets they looked like Irish lace, its people massacring each other.

I lived here through 15 years of civil war that took 150,000 lives, and two Israeli invasions and years of Israeli bombardments that cost the lives of a further 20,000 of its people. I have seen them armless, legless, headless, knifed, bombed and splashed across the walls of houses. Yet they are a fine, educated, moral people whose generosity amazes every foreigner, whose gentleness puts any Westerner to shame, and whose suffering we almost always ignore.

They look like us, the people of Beirut. They have light-coloured skin and speak beautiful English and French. They travel the world. Their women are gorgeous and their food exquisite. But what are we saying of their fate today as the Israelis – in some of their cruellest attacks on this city and the surrounding countryside – tear them from their homes, bomb them on river bridges, cut them off from food and water and electricity? We say that they started this latest war, and we compare their appalling casualties – 240 in all of Lebanon by last night – with Israel’s 24 dead, as if the figures are the same.

And then, most disgraceful of all, we leave the Lebanese to their fate like a diseased people and spend our time evacuating our precious foreigners while tut-tutting about Israel’s “disproportionate” response to the capture of its soldiers by Hizbollah.

I walked through the deserted city centre of Beirut yesterday and it reminded more than ever of a film lot, a place of dreams too beautiful to last, a phoenix from the ashes of civil war whose plumage was so brightly coloured that it blinded its own people. This part of the city – once a Dresden of ruins – was rebuilt by Rafiq Hariri, the prime minister who was murdered scarcely a mile away on 14 February last year.

The wreckage of that bomb blast, an awful precursor to the present war in which his inheritance is being vandalised by the Israelis, still stands beside the Mediterranean, waiting for the last UN investigator to look for clues to the assassination – an investigator who has long ago abandoned this besieged city for the safety of Cyprus.

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

Please keep my family and the Lebanese people in your thoughts and prayers in this difficult time.
 

I got my daily email from my dad this morning, and it sounds that the  bombing is always concentrated in one area, and they are not really feeling much of the effects so far other than hearing the bombs hitting southern Beirut and other areas. 

The website that my dad refers to in the email is pretty informative as it has up to the minute information as to what’s happening. It is in arabic though… there is an English version of it, but not for the update news…

I guess you are expecting to hear something from me about the situation… in fact it started to become boring as no serious action or real changes are taking place on the ground… bombarding is almost continuous especially on the south, and on Dahyeh, and more damage is obvious… more people are being killed mainly those who are moving on the roads. We hear a lot of noises, but nothing serious is taking place in our areas. They bombed empty fuel tanks in Dora, and few trucks at Beirut port, but you can easily tell that they are trying to avoid the Christian areas so far !

We can still find almost ever thing until now though prices for certain items have raised especially food stuff that comes from the south and Becca due to the disconnected roads. Gas and Mazout are getting short, but we can still find benzene. Electricity cut off is better than before in our areas.

I guess this is a brief description of the situation. If you have time, and want to know more about hour by hour changes, you can visit the following website: www.tayyar.org