Playing Terminal Velocity

One of the things that I really hate about Windows 7 is the lack of fullscreen support of the DOS applications.

I have been around computers since I was a little boy, and I still love the games I used to play then like: Prince of Persia 1 & 2, Sky Roads, Lomax, Death Rally and River Raid. and some games that I would love to play but being introduced to much smoother game perfomances I find playing such games is a bit confusing and annoying like per-historical 2 and a game about vikings. I love a classic typing applications called Typing Tutor which is not working anymore because of the 2000 problem (It can not react to current dates becuase the last year it could handle is 1999)

Terminal Velocity

 

So, after installing Windows 7 due to problems with my USB Modem I found out that I can not run such applications any more but today I remembered a game called "Terminal Velocity" and I was determined to play it even if I have to remove Windows 7. so I searched the internet and for ways to run full screen 16-bit DOS applications and the answer was simple, all you have to do is to disable your Display Adapter. And I disabled it.

I installed "Terminal Velocity" and ran the game, I played the first mission and enjoyed it so much. even though the display was not good by any means and there was Lagging but I found those minutes I spent playing this game are very enjoyable, I didn't enjoy playing a flight simulator since Freespace 2

The thing that reminded me of this game is the part where you fly in tunnels and those tunnels are full of traps, although this is not realistic it can not be found in any game I have played recently.

Freespace 2

PREHISTORIK

 

Prince of Persia 2

Prince of Persia

 

Lomax

 

Death Rally

 

Those are some images from the old games that I like and they are still on my Computer, contact me if you want any of them.

I joined #ElAdl Political Party

Yesterday I joined the El Adl political party, all they needed was 2 personal photos and a copy of my ID and I attended a meeting. it was nice, as usual most of the attendance was females and a few males, I filled the form, supplied the photos and ID copy and I became a member.

Dr Mohammad ElNekhely started be introducing the new members, their name, brief intro and age. (of course females argued a little with the age part) then he started taking about the party in general. 

• Stating that it lies in the middle-right wing. 
• It totally agrees with the second article of the Egyptian Constitution and have nothing against it.
• It is the party of the couch party. ie: people with no previous political interests or experiences and spent their time on their home couches infront of their TV sets in a very passive manner.
• Stating the Parties position relative to other parties and Ikhwan (El Adala wa AlHoreya) .

Before starting I asked about the Parliamentary Elections and Dr Mohammad ElNekhely said that the party has no candidates in Ismailia right now but it is negotiating with some of the dissembled National party members who want to enter the Parliamentary Elections under the El Adl umbrella .

After making that clear he started the meeting's schedule, some empty positions and the party's opening hours the next elections and the one who will be elected will be in that position for 4 years and some other stuff that I do not remember.

During the meeting they started passing around some fliers and the Party's identification notebook with the Party's codes and guidelines and a small piece of paper that contained azkar and do'aa (Islamic prayers) of course I tweeted that immediately and said that they are trying to prove that they belong to the right middle.

I was invited to the youth group which should do something remarkable in the next few days. The age range of that group is from 18 to 28, which means that I have one more year to go.

after the meeting I was supposed to meet the youth group to exchange phone numbers and agree on what are we going to do but I found no one so I went for to quick tasks and returned to find the heads of the party are sitting with members of the 6th April movement, I was invited to sit and I found people talking about a lot. It was mainly a [getting to know each other] meeting

That's all, I guess that the only thing I left out is: when they were talking about the second article of the constitution I was about to say that I do not care or I do not agree with it but I kept my mouth shut, well it is a matter of time until they realize that the second article is not about Islam but about justice

Emergency ambulance

In such times of insecurity it is strongly advised that you stop for no one under any circumstance specially on a highway.

I was driving home from Cairo, and a man with a "Galabeya" was waving of course I did not stop but she kept pointing to the other side of the road. After passing him I saw an accident on the other side of the road. I stopped after about 500 meters from the accident and returned to the guy, he said:" there is an Emergency ambulance unit about 4 km tell them to come" I went there and I told them about the accident.

the problem is there were not ready, some were without shirts, others without shoes and they took nearly 2 minutes to get on they way. considering that they are in the business of saving lives that is too much considering that there is a U turn they will take to be on the other side of the road.

the cars are new, powerful, fully equipped and ready. but the people are not. I imagined that once I tell them the location they would be on their way but they took time to wear their shirts and grab their shoes. one of them took his shoes with him in the car to wear it later.

I know it is summer and it is terribly hot weather it happened in ramadan so they were fasting but still they are in the business of saving lives, and they should be ready under any circumstances

I hope things would get better soon in Egypt and everything would be done perfectly, like the textbook says.

Blog Resurrection

I made this blog about 2 years ago. at that time I was a Linux geek and all the blogs I was following had daily updates and of course I did not keep up. it wasn't long before I quit the blog and left it as an archive with no intentions of further updates.

After the Egyptian revolution I have been following some new blogs, blogs written by Egyptians and I found something interesting; the updates were not frequent some write a post every a couple of weeks and some write a post whenever they feel like writing, in fact there are some who did not write a single update since subscribing to their blog. and of course there are some who write more than one post everyday.

I thought of my old blog and what had happened to it, I checked that stats site and found that there was 59 page loads since the start of the blog with about 38 visits. I am sure that I have the record of my blog visits and I did not dig any deeper, such numbers are not encouraging but I made a decision to write to myself and If there is anybody interested from my friends on twitter or facebook they can enjoy what I am writing as well.

Now, about the new guidelines for this blog. I will write nearly about everything: life, the revolution, news, work, technical analysis, maybe jokes I do not know exactly but I promise you whenever anything interesting comes through my mind I will blog about it. bloggin will still be in English because I lack the fast speed typing in arabic. (English is about 60 wpm more or less)

One of the things that made me happy when I opened this page today is the picture on the left side of this text stating, (we will not stop, we will not travel abroad, we will not let go. WE LOVE EGYPT). When someone asks me what did you do supporting the Egyptian revolution, I usually answer: "I had this revolution in my heart years before it happens but no one ever believed that there will be a change." This is a historical proof (at least for me) that I did believe that we have to be better. although I do not remember the occasion of putting this image but I know that is what I believed in then, I wanted Egypt to be a better place, so I was doing anything that was right, I was even very hesitant about starting a business because of the bribes and such corruption that I will have to deal with.

It's good to be back, I hope you enjoy my company and my words

The art negotiations

I found a really interesting concept in negotiations, to give you a little background, I have downloaded a nice book called Negotiations for dummies, and I have found that in one of the first chapters I have to find my ultimate goal in order to be able to negotiate while it is in my view, so I wouldn't compromise my future goals with really less important winnings. So I left the book and I did not continue reading it because as I have mentioned before I am still looking for my target

2 days ago I went to one of the companies construction sites, they were buying steel for the constructions, and I witnessed something I did not expect, a lot of negotiations about the fee of the Bulldozer (I will refer to it as the Earth Moving Machine because this machine is more scary than anyone can imagine)

There was the Lorry carrying the steel, a Bulldozer to load and unload the steel, lots of men.

The way that I can analyze the situation was
the Earth Moving Machine (EMM) owner got a huge point of strength which was he is the only one that can make us all end the day and go to our homes
The Building owner has a point of strength but it is not so effective which is his money, it is a little bit complicated, he has to pay for the Lorry which is carrying the steel and for the men standing, any extra time will be cause anger to arouse specially to the lorry driver who has been there all day long loading the steel

Now the EEM owner is greedy and he is requiring more money for the delay and the change in position (of course the unloading was in a different location) so he started out with 650

On the other hand the guy with the money started out with 175 as he said that the time the EEM worked was only 2 1/2 hours * 70 equals LE 175

Now there was the real beuty of the whole situation
when you look at it from an outsider point of view you would immediatly say that is not fair (and that is what I said) he has been with you for 4 1/2 hours and that is how you should pay them... but I did not speak, and just observed what was happening

after a while they said that for the unloading of the steel they will give him LE.50 over the time he worked which was 2 1/2 hours, which is still not fare from my point of view, just wait a little bit longer.

The owner of the EEM ordered the driver to leave and go to the Garage, Immediatly the driver jumped in the EEM and moved about 20 meters, 20 meters is not a short distance for such a huge machine and it was more than enough to come to another resolution. one of the negotiators picked up his phone and told the owner that he will wake up one of his friends to get him an EEM to unload the steel

and now for the moment of truth they will pay him the whole 4 1/2 hours + LE.100 for the unloading and the owner agrees for a total of 410

let's look at another point of view from the first moment of the problem, he wants more, then he shall receive nothing, let him go to his garage and he will not receive any money for any work he has done and call another EEM which, I was recommending such solutions in the beginning but after what I saw no the first way is much better

Now, the problem is that they are both greedy, one wants to pay less while the other wants to earn more. the beauty is in the way it started, one proposed the maximum while the other proposed the minimum and as you sure noticed they both gave up LE.200 and came to a settlement and in fact this number is the fair number for a naive guy like me would say in first place but if I said so, he would not agree and I would go up for an unfair number for me and more earnings for him.

what happened that night was the pure experience and it is one of the things that can not be taught, just noticed and hope that the next time you would be able to do the same and come out with the best possible solution where you have no time to thing or consider alternatives, because every moment would be a loss for you

I hope I have transfered what I did learn to you and I really hope you benefit from it.
Of course I welcome any comments

Re: Time to Grow Up.

I was reading a blog called Living in Egypt, The writer of the blog is a Canadian Lady living in Egypt blogging about her life, opinions and experiences in the Egyptian community. I found an interesting post called Time to Grow Up, it was so... I do not know what to say about the post but the least I can say is it was disturbing, I found that the lady who is about 59 years old has just stopped worrying about what will she be when she grows up, she stopped worrying about the future and her targets and goals in life. And this is a total problem for me as I am only 24 and I can't stop thinking about the future.

I need to find my path before it is too late to take any actions, I need to claim this time where I am in full strength and bright mind and gather the most possible experiences of life that when I grow old I can make huge decisions without much effort because I won't have such effort (everybody grows old, weak and more fragile)

But the scary idea is to give life the driving wheel of your life, to be like a captain-less ship in the huge ocean of life and accept any shore life throws you on. And I do not want that fate, I want to make my own fate to carve my own steps to the place I want, but where do I want to go? 

A friend once told me that this problem is the problem of all young people who are not following their parents lead, for example: one friend graduated as an engineer but he knows and totally accepting that this graduation was only a prestige to just be an engineer because his fate will lie in his fathers shop, another one who graduated as a doctor and he is already having a job in his father's hospital. It is the problem of people who do not have a plan to inherit, who do not have a pre-paved path of life to follow

And I guess that Mrs. Maryanne agrees with me that she did not have a paved path to follow it was life and fate that got her to this point of life and I also think that she is out of strength to make any action to even think of changing anything right now. She has entered the phase where people around her will benefit from her wisdom accumulated through all those years of hard work. She is entering the stage where she is getting ready for the upcoming responsibilities. and I guess that she will soon start worrying about other people.

Now, The Question is What shall I do?, How shall I know what to do?, and How can I gain command of my own life?

I know for sure that there is nothing easy even making a paper plane (If you do not remember the time you took to make your first plane try making this one) but there must be a way to find my own path, and I am determined on finding it.

Animals at rest.

I am not used to animals being everywhere around me, but I found there is a cat that is always waiting, sleeping, playing infront of an appartment in the second floor in the building where I am living

Few steps away from the building there is a Masjed where last night I saw about 8 Dogs sleeping in its garden

Across the street there is an old green car with another dog sleeping on it and about 200 meters there was somthing like 3 dogs patrolling the area but the camera did not capture a good postable images of these dogs

I guess that the door step is the safest place for the cat to stay, espcially that it is too cute to be disturbed (unless you live in that appartment, which is totally a different story)

The only unpleasant incedentwhen I was getting out of the car and a dog suddenly ran frightened, of course I do not need to tell you what happened to me

I guess someone (except me) should do something about these animals -- I saw a mouse once too -- but until that someone takes an action I will be long gone from that place and found a better one

In another area I found this:

The guy eating in the image is a friend of mine that is why I pixlated his face

These cats are near a liver stand and those who are not from Egypt the liver stand is the alternative for hot-dog stands in the U.S.  The workers in that stand keep the place ccleen and provide the cats with food. This place is a bus stop and it is an extremely active area with lots of people and cars moving 24/7 but there is always kindness and sweetness in the heart of chaos.