  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>OmarUddin.com - Visions of business, web, mobile and the future</title>
	<atom:link href="http://omaruddin.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://omaruddin.com</link>
	<description>I dig innovation from mobile to web and the future.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:39:27 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator>
<xhtml:meta xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="robots" content="noindex" />
		<item>
		<title>Dashboard.io Startup Metrics for Pirates WordPress Plugin</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2011/06/15/simple-dashboard-io/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2011/06/15/simple-dashboard-io/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:05:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entrepreneurs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Startup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[metrics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[startup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wordpress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://omaruddin.com/?p=584</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been working with a good friend and colleague, Paul Singh, Founder of Dashboard.io to beta test his new analytics[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2011/06/15/simple-dashboard-io/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F06%2F15%2Fsimple-dashboard-io%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F06%2F15%2Fsimple-dashboard-io%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;hashtags=metrics,startup,wordpress&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>I&#8217;ve been working with a good friend and colleague, <a href="http://twitter.com/paulsingh">Paul Singh</a>, Founder of <a href="http://dashboard.io/">Dashboard.io</a> to beta test his new analytics tracking solution for startups/founders/investors which is based on the metrics standard <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-4-pirates-20-march-2011-sxsw">AARRR</a> from <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/davemcclure">Dave McClure</a>, Founder of <a href="http://500startups.com/">500startups</a> and the guy behind Startup Metrics for Pirates. Dashboard.io allows startups to see how they rank against other startups while investors benefit from it the same way.</p>
<p>I threw together this blog post and WordPress plugin based on Dashboard.io tracking integration and AARRR standard to save time on applying the code on wordpress sites and to eventually make the plugin seemlessly integrate for all stages of the conversion funnel proposed by AARRR.</p>
<p>So far Dashboard.io is working well for me on my sites like <a href="http://music.com/">Music.com</a> and is helping people understand relevant metrics and conversion goals for their websites.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d like to fork this plugin or download it for now I just have it on <a href="https://github.com/omaruddin/simple-dashboard-io">github</a>. I&#8217;ll publish to WordPress.org CODEX if there&#8217;s demand for it.</p>
<p>I welcome feedback and kudos to Paul Singh for releasing this analytics app.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2011/06/15/simple-dashboard-io/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>24 Reasons Why Your Business Is Not Innovating</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/12/why-your-business-is-not-innovating/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/12/why-your-business-is-not-innovating/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 12 Mar 2011 15:00:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Star Trek]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[innovation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[startup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://omaruddin.com/?p=510</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Innovation is a key driving force that has enabled our modern civilization to become what it is today. Innovation has[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/12/why-your-business-is-not-innovating/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F03%2F12%2Fwhy-your-business-is-not-innovating%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F03%2F12%2Fwhy-your-business-is-not-innovating%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;hashtags=business,innovation,startup,technology&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Innovation is a key driving force that has enabled our modern civilization to become what it is today. Innovation has taken us from being simple wandering hunter gatherers and nomadic tribes all the way up to the social, military and economic revolutions that have propelled us to where we are today.</p>
<p><span id="more-510"></span></p>
<p>Innovation is the process of trying something new and if it works or survives, you keep it, otherwise throw it away or tweak it until it grows and changes things for the better.  Andy Singleton, from Assembla.com, writes about the <a href="http://blog.assembla.com/assemblablog/tabid/12618/bid/43132/Theory-of-innovation-Optimization-Exploration-and-the-dueling-horsemen-of-genesis.aspx?source=Blog_Email_%5BTheory+of+innovation%5D">Theory of Innovation</a> requiring exploration, observation and optimization.  People and companies who don&#8217;t challenge themselves to innovate themselves as well as provide a culture of team innovation are likely to fall by the wayside and be beaten by competition. Whether you are looking for a new job or whether you&#8217;re looking to grow sustainable advantage against your business&#8217; competition, innovation mindsets are the key to success.</p>
<p>Re-invent, pivot, tweak, learn and optimize are alternative actions that I think of for innovating myself and my businesses.  Out with the status quo and in with better ways, tools, methods and thinking.</p>
<p>The successive waves of innovation over the last century has taken us from electricity to telecommunications to microchips all the way into the ubiquitous nature of the Internet and has changed the way humans live and continue to advance into the future.</p>
<p>Science fiction has also inspired researchers, engineers and scientists alike to take visions of the future and attempt to innovate these visions into reality. From <a href="http://www.slipperybrick.com/2008/01/star-trek-gadgets/">Star Trek&#8217;s communication devices</a><a href="http://omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/phone.jpeg"><img src="http://omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/phone-300x208.jpg" alt="" title="phone" width="300" height="208" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-541" style="float:right;padding:3px"/></a> to cell phone technology, human kind undoubtedly has an innate backbone and curiosity to innovate. </p>
<p>I wrote this post because I often come across a common theme in various sectors of our technology driven world &#8212; resistance or ignorance to innovation.</p>
<p>Working as a hive mind, an organization or business of any shape or form, must work to better themselves, achieve their shared vision and hopefully do good in the process for the world.</p>
<p>Whether driven by shareholder value demands or passionate social good there are many reasons why innovation isn&#8217;t in every nook and cranny of society.</p>
<p>Just as one example, cloud computing as an innovation has helped to reduce costs, reduce waste, increase profits, increase scalability and make better use of our energy resources. At the same time, ignorance and resistance to change have led to common beliefs that cloud computing is inherently insecure. With the right strategy and execution cloud computing can be highly secure, it just depends on your situation and needs.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m a firm believer that each and every person in this world should work towards betterment of themselves and so should the organizations where they work. Corporate values and social goals alongside innovation is paramount to everyone&#8217;s future. Eliminating disease, war, hunger along with conserving resources and capital waste are all very good reasons for leaders of society to innovate. </p>
<p>Now don&#8217;t get me wrong, there are plenty of people innovating throughout the government, business sectors and even non-profits, but having an understanding of why you may not be innovating may be the first step in continuing to advance the progression of innovation &#8212; whether incremental or game changing.</p>
<p>Here are some reasons that you should look for in your organization or team to understand why you may not be innovating!</p>
<p>Lack of internal support or buy in</p>
<ul>
<li>Resistance to change</li>
<li>Management discourages innovation in it&#8217;s culture</li>
<li>Lack of focus, vision and direction from leaders</li>
<li>Lack of association of innovation and differentiation with growth</li>
<li>Leaders defensive to new ideas that challenge status quo</li>
</ul>
<p>No common definition of innovation and how to measure success</p>
<ul>
<li>Lack of understanding of the types of innovation</li>
<li>No key metrics and tracking for baseline and targets</li>
</ul>
<p>Lack of innovation processes</p>
<ul>
<li>No idea management</li>
<li>No new ideas, new problems or learning opportunities</li>
<li>No process to bring idea from vision to growth</li>
<li>No research and development</li>
<li>Lack of effective communication between team on innovation process</li>
<li>Failure to execute projects effectively</li>
<li>Lack of measurement and tracking on projects</li>
<li>Lack of user and stakeholder analysis</li>
<li>No monitoring or communication on innovations</li>
</ul>
<p>Lack of Customer Focus</p>
<ul>
<li>Lack of listening and talking to customers</li>
<li>Lack of understanding of market and customer development  interaction</li>
</ul>
<p>Lack of long term goals</p>
<ul>
<li>A focus on risk mitigation and risk adversity</li>
<li>Short term focus with no time spent on long term</li>
<li>Focusing on unrealistic financial returns or short term gain</li>
</ul>
<p>Lack of resources</p>
<ul>
<li>Lack of adequate funding</li>
<li>Lack of prioritization of resources</li>
</ul>
<p>Lack of teamwork</p>
<ul>
<li>Lack of challenging your team</li>
<li>Lack of effective communication between team on new ideas</li>
<li>Lack of knowledge management</li>
<li>No perceived incentive to be innovative</li>
</ul>
<hr/>
<div class="iframe-wrapper">
  <iframe src="http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/86484535/why-your-business-is-not-innovating?width=600&#038;height=300&#038;zoom=0&#038;live_update=1&#038;no_logo=1" frameborder="0" style="height:600px;width:700px;">Please upgrade your browser</iframe>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/12/why-your-business-is-not-innovating/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Free Spreadsheet &#8211; Rackspace Cloud Infrastructure Hosting Budget Planner</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/07/rackspace-cloud-infrastructure-hosting-budget-planner/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/07/rackspace-cloud-infrastructure-hosting-budget-planner/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:39:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cloud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hosting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[budget]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hosting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rackspace]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://omaruddin.com/?p=474</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As a web developer and software entrepreneur I often come to rely on Rackspace to support my hosting and infrastructure[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/07/rackspace-cloud-infrastructure-hosting-budget-planner/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F03%2F07%2Frackspace-cloud-infrastructure-hosting-budget-planner%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F03%2F07%2Frackspace-cloud-infrastructure-hosting-budget-planner%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;hashtags=budget,cloud,Google,hosting,Rackspace&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>As a web developer and software entrepreneur I often come to rely on Rackspace to support my hosting and infrastructure needs.  I&#8217;ve also been tweeting and discussing Cloud Computing and it&#8217;s benefits.</p>
<p>For the benefit of any nerds, admins, developers, entrepreneurs and CTOs alike, I&#8217;ve put together this Google Spread Sheet template to help you forecast your potential hosting budget impact as it relates to your hosting configuration and metered usages.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d like help with this template applied to your business or with your hosting solution, let me know and I&#8217;d be glad to help. Also I&#8217;ve made this a free template at Google Docs but I welcome feedback and suggestions on improving it.</p>
<p>I hope you will find it as useful as my clients and I do to help forecast costs for your shiny new, contract-free cloud at Rackspace <img src='http://omaruddin.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Check out the template and feel free to modify and use it as you please &#8212; <a href= "https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0AueGloV4tD7wdC1aZWtjWUtKSUFydWF0SVBfeHBSb1E&#038;mode=public" title="Rackspace Cloud Hosting Infrastructure Budget Planner">Rackspace Cloud Infrastructure Hosting Budget Planner</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2011/03/07/rackspace-cloud-infrastructure-hosting-budget-planner/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Mind Map : Cloud Computing for Non-Profits</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2011/02/22/mind-map-cloud-computing-for-non-profits/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2011/02/22/mind-map-cloud-computing-for-non-profits/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:55:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cloud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Non-profit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nonprofit]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nptech]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://omaruddin.com/?p=463</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the last few months, I&#8217;ve been quite preoccupied with research and development and one of the most common tools[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2011/02/22/mind-map-cloud-computing-for-non-profits/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F02%2F22%2Fmind-map-cloud-computing-for-non-profits%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2011%2F02%2F22%2Fmind-map-cloud-computing-for-non-profits%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;hashtags=cloud,nonprofit,nptech,technology&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Over the last few months, I&#8217;ve been quite preoccupied with research and development and one of the most common tools I use in my work is Mind Mapping. I was also recently asked to be a guest for <a href="http://socialnicole.com/nptalk-nonprofit-talk-twitter-chat/">#nptalk</a> to chat about Cloud Computing for Non-profits. For the benefit of non-profit leaders and to further my evangelism for non-profits and <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23nptech">#nptech</a>, I decided to share this mind map on the very same subject. </p>
<p>This particular mind map may not make sense to every #nptech person out there, regardless I hope you will find it useful.</p>
<p>If you would like any help or advice on cloud computing for your non-profit or business including government, I&#8217;d be happy to help, just reach out to me through the blog or contact form.</p>
<div class="iframe-wrapper">
  <iframe src="http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/83454752/cloud-computing-for-non-profits-by-omar-uddin?width=600&#038;height=400&#038;zoom=0&#038;live_update=1&#038;no_logo=1" frameborder="0" style="height:600px;width:700px;">Please upgrade your browser</iframe>
</div>
<p><br/><br />
I plan to release more mind maps on variety of topics for the benefit of interested audiences. I also welcome your feedback and suggestions on mind maps you&#8217;d like to see or consider for discussion.<br />
<span id="more-463"></span><br />
Here&#8217;s a PDF Download :<br />
<a href='http://omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Cloud_Computing_for_Non-profits_by_Omar_Uddin.pdf'>Mind Map : Cloud Computing for Non-profits by Omar_Uddin</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2011/02/22/mind-map-cloud-computing-for-non-profits/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>PHP vs whatever debate &#8211; don&#8217;t be stupid &#8211; create value from your tech</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2010/07/22/php-vs-whatever-debate-dont-be-stupid-create-value-from-your-tech/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2010/07/22/php-vs-whatever-debate-dont-be-stupid-create-value-from-your-tech/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:55:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DotNet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hosting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Prototyping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Architecture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Startup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PHP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://omaruddin.com/?p=453</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are countless articles, forums, blogs and other sites that try to either defend or blast PHP for use as[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2010/07/22/php-vs-whatever-debate-dont-be-stupid-create-value-from-your-tech/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2010%2F07%2F22%2Fphp-vs-whatever-debate-dont-be-stupid-create-value-from-your-tech%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2010%2F07%2F22%2Fphp-vs-whatever-debate-dont-be-stupid-create-value-from-your-tech%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;hashtags=development,PHP,web&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>There are countless articles, forums, blogs and other sites that try to either defend or blast PHP for use as a professional language for web development. There are a ton of PHP developers than ever before and there are many great options to choose from in terms of your web development technology.</p>
<p>A good example of these debates are like this <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/309300/defend-php-convince-me-it-isnt-horrible">one</a> &#8212; which I will warn that you not read too much into as well!  </p>
<p>Considering PHP is dominant due to it&#8217;s default installation with Apache on Linux web servers &#8211; the most dominant server distro on the web &#8212; this debate could greatly be &#8216;closed&#8217; if these folks look through a magnifying glass for specific scenarios, or if they look to people that have worked on both sides of the debate &#8212; such as me.<br />
<span id="more-453"></span><br />
My web projects across businesses, non-profits &#038; government are currently using both .NET and PHP in various ways. I personally love open source technology especially PHP, MySQL, Apache and I contribute to open source projects like <a href="http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-geo-mashup/">GeoMashup</a>, a plugin for <a href="http://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> that  among other projects. We also use a bit of Java when there is a simple way to integrate it through say web services and if we have expertise to work with it.</p>
<p>What I&#8217;ve learned from other experts and from my own experience over the years that technology is a commodity and the experts that are fluent in different technologies, may feel that they are better at PHP than Perl, or better at PHP then Java etc.  So it&#8217;s sort of biased to say that one technology is better. Facebook, Yahoo and other big internet businesses are using PHP and are doing it well. PHP is not as &#8216;fast&#8217; as C/C++, Java, .NET or any compiled language but unless you&#8217;re a web developer or software architect, you don&#8217;t need compiled languages for your website. You need compiled code for back end stuff a lot of the times and Perl can be compiled. </p>
<p>If you can still continue reading this article and aren&#8217;t bored out of your mind (to those reader&#8217;s that are not techies), you&#8217;ll realize that having these argument&#8217;s may be pointless.</p>
<p>When I build web application or website prototypes, I almost immediately go to <a href="http://php.net/">PHP</a> because of good frameworks or platforms like <a href="http://wordpress.org">WordPress</a>, <a href="http://drupal.org/">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://www.symfony-project.org/">Symfony</a> and others because I have an infinite amount of functionality and customization options as well as pretty cheap hosting solutions already where PHP/MySQL cost me a lot less than running say Microsoft SQL Server.  I also use my Mac Book Pro most of the time I&#8217;m in my lab where I build and deploy many sites from my local XAMPP stack that gives me a web development stack that includes Apache, PHP, MySQL etc.  When I need to work on .NET I fire up a virtual machine, Remote Desktop into a Windows box or use <a href="http://www.mono-project.com/">Mono</a> &#8211; the open source .NET Runtime for Linux. But I can even be disconnected from the web and go to the coffee shop and continue developing.</p>
<p>Focusing on specific needs and the &#8216;right tool for the job&#8217; are probably more realistic so I think developers and technology folks shouldn&#8217;t waste time with the &#8220;versus&#8221; debate.   What matters most is what your folks are good at, documentation, having a pool of resources in case you need to grow (PHP has a lot!), whether or not you plan to integrate something that uses a certain technology, licensing concerns (Windows is not free), operating or hosting costs, scalability, and possibly acquisition concerns if you&#8217;re planning to sell your business.</p>
<p>Also I should note that if you have an existing investment then there a lot of CTOs and decision makers in organizations do not want to consider adding PHP into the mix even for certain things, like intranet, collaboration, content management due to their reliance on Microsoft. I just advise those folks to stick with their vendor-lock if they don&#8217;t understand open source&#8217;s benefits since they already have invested too much say in a pure-Microsoft environment including Exchange, Sharepoint etc.</p>
<p>I look forward to seeing what other great applications, frameworks, solutions and products come out but I can bet that these debates will always be alive. New technology from HTML5, CSS3 and more what will continue to push (new and old) developer&#8217;s into learning new technology both to build their resume and continue to scratch their learning itch!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2010/07/22/php-vs-whatever-debate-dont-be-stupid-create-value-from-your-tech/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Job and Gig Hunting Tips</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/29/job-and-gig-hunting-tips/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/29/job-and-gig-hunting-tips/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:39:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Jobs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2010/03/29/job-and-gig-hunting-tips/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Having been a contractor &#038; consultant for many years and knowing many freelancers and other folks just looking for work[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/29/job-and-gig-hunting-tips/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2010%2F03%2F29%2Fjob-and-gig-hunting-tips%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2010%2F03%2F29%2Fjob-and-gig-hunting-tips%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Having been a contractor &#038; consultant for many years and knowing many freelancers and other folks just looking for work I figured it might be beneficial for me to share my bookmarks and tips on job hunting in general. Since the recession of 2009 and with 10% unemployment at the time of this post, people need all the opportunities and tips they can get. Although I haven&#8217;t had a job in 7 years, there are many times I&#8217;ve been asked by friends and colleagues about how to find a job or gig.</p>
<p><span id="more-86"></span><br />
There are many sites out there that I probably haven&#8217;t covered but here are some:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">
<li><a href="http://simpyhired.com/">simpyhired.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jobfox.com/">www.jobfox.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.theladders.com/">www.theladders.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jobsradar.com/">www.jobsradar.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.indeed.com/">www.indeed.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jobs.jsninja.com/">jobs.jsninja.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://job-hunt.com">job-hunt.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.authenticjobs.com/">www.authenticjobs.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://careers.com/">careers.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://careers.yahoo.com/">careers.yahoo.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hotjobs.com/">hotjobs.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://usajobs.gov/">usajobs.gov</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jobs.37signals.com/jobs">jobs.37signals.com/jobs</a></li>
<li><a href="http://monster.com/">monster.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://careerbuilder.com/">careerbuilder.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dice.com/">dice.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://craigslist.com/">craigslist.com</a></li>
</ul>
<hr/>
<p>Freelance or Gig Sites</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">
<li><a href="http://elance.com/">elance.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.odesk.com/">www.odesk.com</a></li>
</ul>
<p>More Job Sites and articles that you may find of use.</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">
<li><a href="http://www.quintcareers.com/top_50_sites.html">The Top 50 Job Hunting Sites for Job-Seekers, 1-10</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.fiscalfizzle.com/2009/07/job-hunting-tips-in-recession/">Recession Job Hunting Tips</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ziprecruiter.com/">ZipRecruiter &#8211; Post your job to many sites!</a></li>
</ul>
<hr/>
Some Tips for Job Hunting</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">
<li>Get your friends or colleagues and professional recruiters to tell you what they would recommend changing on your resume, cover letters or your job seeking in general</li>
<li>I recommend you use Google Reader and subscribe to RSS feeds if available from sites that provide RSS especially if the RSS is broken down by category.</li>
<li>Create some canned cover letters ready to attach to your resume for any job that requires you to submit a letter.</li>
<li>Try to focus your job search to jobs that you are highly suited to and that are using the right keywords that head hunters or recruiters are looking for.</li>
<li>If you are seeking a technical position, more than one page is acceptable (many people think that anything more than one page is too much) so try to condense your most recent 5-years of job experience history to 2 pages total..</li>
<li>Some of the sites above allow you to set search agents and multiple resumes.</li>
<li>Some of the sites above are not meant for every type of job.</li>
<li>Consider volunteering your time to a non-profit that may need volunteer help.</li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/29/job-and-gig-hunting-tips/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Multiple Domains or sites on a single WordPress mu instance at Rackspace Cloud Sites &#8211; when no wildcard needed</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/01/multiple-domains-or-sites-on-a-single-wordpress-mu-instance-at-rackspace-cloud-sites-when-no-wildcard-needed/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/01/multiple-domains-or-sites-on-a-single-wordpress-mu-instance-at-rackspace-cloud-sites-when-no-wildcard-needed/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:36:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hosting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wordpress]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2010/03/01/multiple-domains-or-sites-on-a-single-wordpress-mu-instance-at-rackspace-cloud-sites-when-no-wildcard-needed/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After talking to my friends Robert La Gesse from Rackspace Cloud and @vidluther from ThirdPartyCode, I decided messing with domain[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/01/multiple-domains-or-sites-on-a-single-wordpress-mu-instance-at-rackspace-cloud-sites-when-no-wildcard-needed/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2010%2F03%2F01%2Fmultiple-domains-or-sites-on-a-single-wordpress-mu-instance-at-rackspace-cloud-sites-when-no-wildcard-needed%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2010%2F03%2F01%2Fmultiple-domains-or-sites-on-a-single-wordpress-mu-instance-at-rackspace-cloud-sites-when-no-wildcard-needed%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>After talking to my friends <a href="http://www.lagesse.org/">Robert La Gesse</a> from <a href="http://www.rackspacecloud.com/">Rackspace Cloud</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/vidluther">@vidluther</a> from <a href="http://thirdpartycode.com/">ThirdPartyCode</a>, I decided messing with domain alias feature of Rackspace Cloud Sites so I could save money from getting a Cloud Server, VPS or slicehost.</p>
<p>If you need to run multiple-separate domains and one base master WordPress template theme with multiple children themes (like what I needed was a product site, 2 blogs, a community and a corporate site) without the need for wildcard subdomains or subfolders per blog/site then running a single instance of code and database on Rackspace Cloud Sites is possible using their domain alias feature.<br />
<span id="more-85"></span></p>
<p>I recommend you follow these steps to setup WordPress MU:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://wpmu.org/multisite-manager/">Download</a> and install WPMU Multi-Site Plugin</li>
<li>Setup your different domains, sites blogs locally with the help of this plugin on your dev installation and get everything working the way you want like content, themes, plugins etc.</li>
<li>Deploy to the core or &#8216;first&#8217; site as you would normally do to the Rackspace Cloud Site</li>
<li>Test to see if this core site is working</li>
</ol>
<p>Then follow these steps to setup the other Rackspace Cloud Sites &#038; DNS:</p>
<ol>
<li>Setup the actual core domain in DNS to point to the matching Cloud Site IP that should have an appropriate database for the instance</li>
<li>Deploy the local developer instance files and database to this core domain </li>
<li>Setup domain aliases with the help of this <a href="http://help.rackspacecloud.com/article.php?id=077">Help guide</a> at Rackspace Cloud support </li>
<li>Test that wordpress mu is serving the core and new alias domains that you have set up in the multi-site configuration</li>
</ol>
<p>It&#8217;s that easy and I was pleasantly surprised when it was working so easily in addition to not having to get a server or other dedicated vm/box for running WPMU in this way!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2010/03/01/multiple-domains-or-sites-on-a-single-wordpress-mu-instance-at-rackspace-cloud-sites-when-no-wildcard-needed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>WCF / .NET 3.5 on the Rackspace Cloud</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2009/09/08/wcf-net-35-on-the-rackspace-cloud/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2009/09/08/wcf-net-35-on-the-rackspace-cloud/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:53:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[DotNet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hosting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Software Architecture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[.NET]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2009/09/08/wcf-net-35-on-the-rackspace-cloud/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For those of you folks who are considering a cloud hosting solution for your ASP.NET web apps with or without[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2009/09/08/wcf-net-35-on-the-rackspace-cloud/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2009%2F09%2F08%2Fwcf-net-35-on-the-rackspace-cloud%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2009%2F09%2F08%2Fwcf-net-35-on-the-rackspace-cloud%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;hashtags=.NET&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>For those of you folks who are considering a cloud hosting solution for your ASP.NET web apps with or without WCF services, I strongly recommend you test out Rackspace Cloud.</p>
<p>I had some trouble getting things working but found an excellent <a href="http://www.edoverip.com/edoverip/index.php/2009/01/30/running-wcf-on-godaddy/">article</a> that should help  you .NET developers looking to use Rackspace Cloud Sites as solution to host your ASP.NET web sites, web apps or WCF services.  </p>
<p>Since cloud hosting has different conditions for security and reliability, there are some other considerations that you should check out at the Help support area of the Rackspace Cloud:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://help.rackspacecloud.com/article.php?id=383">Overview of modified Medium Trust</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://help.rackspacecloud.com/article.php?id=262">How do I add impersonation to my ASP.NET site?</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Cheers to the folks at Rackspace Cloud! PS When can I expect Cloud Servers to run Windows in a vm <img src='http://omaruddin.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />  ?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2009/09/08/wcf-net-35-on-the-rackspace-cloud/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Essential Ableton Live Tools and Live Packs</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/10/30/essential-ableton-live-tools-and-live-packs/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/10/30/essential-ableton-live-tools-and-live-packs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:14:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/10/30/essential-ableton-live-tools-and-live-packs/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With the upcoming release of Ableton Live 7, I wanted to give all my fellow Ableton-hungry producers some of the[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/10/30/essential-ableton-live-tools-and-live-packs/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F10%2F30%2Fessential-ableton-live-tools-and-live-packs%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F10%2F30%2Fessential-ableton-live-tools-and-live-packs%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>With the <a href="http://www.ableton.com/live-7-announcement" target="_blank">upcoming release</a> of Ableton Live 7, I wanted to give all my fellow Ableton-hungry producers some of the resources that I&#8217;ve found to be useful with regards to VSTs and Ableton 6&#8242;s instruments and Live Packs.<br />
<span id="more-68"></span><br />
<b>Must have Live Packs (Free or cheap!)</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.ableton.com/livepacks" target="_blank">Ableton Live Packs Downloads</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.thecovertoperators.org/" target="_blank">The Covert Operators</a></li>
<li><a href="http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/07/02/free-ableton-live-pack-by-composer-dennis-desantis/" target="_blank">Free Ableton Live Pack by Composer Dennis DeSantis</a></li>
<li><a href="http://createdigitalmusic.com/?p=1574" target="_blank">Five Dollar Bass, Atmosphere Expansion Packs for Ableton Live</a><br/>If you&#8217;re finding massive soundware libraries to be a little overwhelming on your hard drive, your brain, and your wallet you&#8217;ll like the idea of the new expansion packs from Tone Research. The first two are 13MB downloads priced at US$4.99 each. They work with Live 5 and get bonus features from Live 6. I&#8217;m still waiting on my copies, so I can&#8217;t yet comment on sound quality yet, but I&#8217;ll report back once I&#8217;ve thrown these into some songs.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.synthtopia.com/content/tag/ableton/" target="_blank">Ableton Synthtopia</a></li>
<li><a href="http://puremagnetik.com/" target="_blank">PureMagnetik</a><br/>Great Deal.. pay a $5/monthly subscription and get a great Live Pack every month</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Learning Resources</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a target="_blank" href="https://askvideo.com/product_info.php?cPath=30&#038;products_id=33&#038;osCsid=95853bff2506a4a4c226e92b911be157">AskVideo.com</a></li>
<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/abletonLive6">Ableton Live 6 101</a></li>
<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/Live102">Ableton Live 6 102</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b>VST / Plugins</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=komplete5">Native Instruments Komplete 5</a><br/>KOMPLETE 5 is the high-end collection of 11 ground-breaking synthesizers, samplers, emulations, and a virtual guitar studio. Perfect for both studio and stage &#8211; this is the industry-standard bundle for serious musicians, producers and sound designers. KOMPLETE 5&#8242;s instruments can be heard on platinum-selling records and in underground clubs alike, all over the world.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.defectiverecords.com/majormalfunction/">Major Malfunction</a><br/>A sweet plugin for mangling, glitch, distortion and and much more in a easy to use interface.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.soundsonline.com/" target="_blank">Sounds Online</a><br/>A top site for massive collection of samples from many sample studios with most of the tools available via VST or other host plugin technologies and sometimes also raw samples .</li>
<li><a href="http://www.kvraudio.com/" target="_blank">KVR Audio</a><br/>I check this site to stay up to date on the latest trends in Audio Plugin technology.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.gearwire.com/glitch-livewire001.html">Dblue Glitch Freeware Plug-in: Free .wav Deconstruction</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b>Cool Hardware</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.sonicalabs.com/">Sonica Labs</a><br/>I recently purchased the high end HUSH-QR Quadcore after doing research on all the top tiered custom DAW vendors around the world. Sonica Labs&#8217;s price point for a QuadCore Xeon loaded with memory, disk and expansion abilities has been a great replacement for my old DAWs. Talk with &#8216;Guy&#8217; at the company to find out more, I was sold even before I asked them a thousand questions which they gladly answered to satisfy my curiousities about investing in their products.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.monotouchlive.com/index.php?option=com_content&#038;task=view&#038;id=14&#038;Itemid=29">MonoTouchLive</a><br/> A brilliant tool to allow you to control your DAW with your TabletPC&#8217;s remote touch MIDI interface application!</li>
</ul>
<p>To be honest with you, I don&#8217;t think I have time to list every tool that I use on this post since there are so many but I&#8217;ll try to do a follow up post or possibly create a dedicated page so you can come back to it for updates. Enjoy.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/10/30/essential-ableton-live-tools-and-live-packs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>iPhone GPS Hack converts your iPhone to a personal navigation device!</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/19/iphone-gps-hack-converts-your-iphone-to-a-personal-navigation-device/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/19/iphone-gps-hack-converts-your-iphone-to-a-personal-navigation-device/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:38:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[iPhone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/09/19/iphone-gps-hack-converts-your-iphone-to-a-personal-navigation-device/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For those of us wishing the iPhone included GPS receiver built in, this is a short term solution that&#8217;s a[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/19/iphone-gps-hack-converts-your-iphone-to-a-personal-navigation-device/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F19%2Fiphone-gps-hack-converts-your-iphone-to-a-personal-navigation-device%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F19%2Fiphone-gps-hack-converts-your-iphone-to-a-personal-navigation-device%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p><img id="image80"  alt="iPhone GPS Hack from Navizon" src="/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/iphonegpsnavizon.jpg" /></p>
<p>
For those of us wishing the iPhone included GPS receiver built in, this is a short term solution that&#8217;s a hack at best but even if it is &#8216;off&#8217; by 100 yards, I can at least avoid the time wastage that occurs with putting a starting address into the driving directions feature of the iPhone Google Maps application!</p>
<p>
Find out more from <a href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/iphone-gps-hack-works-301459.php">Gizmodo</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/19/iphone-gps-hack-converts-your-iphone-to-a-personal-navigation-device/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>User Interface Testing/QA Tool for Web Developers</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/13/user-interface-testingqa-tool-for-web-developers/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/13/user-interface-testingqa-tool-for-web-developers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/09/13/user-interface-testingqa-tool-for-web-developers/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A good friend of mine, Vid Luther from PHPCult / Linuxpowered.com, showed me Selenium, a nifty Firefox extension, today for[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/13/user-interface-testingqa-tool-for-web-developers/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F13%2Fuser-interface-testingqa-tool-for-web-developers%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F13%2Fuser-interface-testingqa-tool-for-web-developers%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>A good friend of mine, Vid Luther from <a href="http://www.phpcult.com/">PHPCult</a> / <a href="http://www.linuxpowered.com">Linuxpowered.com</a>, <img id="image77" alt="Selenium IDE screenshot" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/selenium-ide.jpg" style="float:right; margin:5px" />showed me <a href="http://www.openqa.org/selenium-ide/">Selenium</a>, a nifty Firefox extension, today for developing test cases that you can play back into the Firefox browser including pauses, delays, keystrokes, form values, and link clicks.</p>
<p><b>Selenium IDE</b> is an integrated development environment for <a href="http://www.openqa.org/selenium/">Selenium</a> tests. It is implemented as a Firefox extension, and allows you to record, edit, and debug tests. Selenium IDE includes the entire Selenium Core, allowing you to easily and quickly record and play back tests in the actual environment that they will run.</p>
<p>If you find yourself repeatedly running the same user flow tests on a website or web application, try out this <a href="http://www.openqa.org/selenium-ide/">extension</a> today!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/13/user-interface-testingqa-tool-for-web-developers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Data Visualization &#8211; Oh So Pretty!</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/data-visualization-oh-so-pretty/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/data-visualization-oh-so-pretty/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:33:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Visualization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/data-visualization-oh-so-pretty/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you ever been into a meeting with a presentation being shown by some techie or project lead that attempts[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/data-visualization-oh-so-pretty/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F10%2Fdata-visualization-oh-so-pretty%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F10%2Fdata-visualization-oh-so-pretty%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Have you ever been into a meeting with a presentation being shown by some techie or project lead that attempts to describe some kind of trend or probabilistic projection and been bored by the visualization? Well many sectors of the economy rely on very simple visualization tools that aren&#8217;t at the fore front of data visualization and mining techniques that are available nowadays.</p>
<p>In the recent past I&#8217;ve <a href="http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/06/01/geocommons-google-maps-mash-up-with-heat-map-technology/">posted</a> about Google Maps mashups with heat map technology but there are many powerful tools out there (some web based, others not) that intrinsically yield powerful trends that may not even have been discoverable with simple charts, graphs and basic visualization tools of the past era.</p>
<p>An article in <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-approaches/">SmashingMagazine.com</a> has catalogued and captured screenshots of the most amazing and beautiful data visualization models out there including everything from 3d heatmapping/contouring, content clouding, to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map">mind mapping</a>.</p>
<p>One of my favorites is a 3d visual population hill/spike density map from Time Magazine:<br />
<a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/02/data-visualization-modern-approaches/"><img src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/us.jpg" alt="Time Magazine uses visual hills (spikes) to emphasize the density of American population in its map." /></a></p>
<p>If you are in the business of analysis of any kind, you should definitely read this article and check out the screen shots. You might find the technologies that these companies are creating useful to your endeavor.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/data-visualization-oh-so-pretty/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Are you an egomaniac or just confidently ambitious?</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/are-you-an-egomaniac-or-just-confidently-ambitious/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/are-you-an-egomaniac-or-just-confidently-ambitious/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:11:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Entrepreneurs]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/are-you-an-egomaniac-or-just-confidently-ambitious/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A recent article of an interview by Guy Kawasaki on the authors of a book called &#8220;egonomics: What Makes Ego[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/are-you-an-egomaniac-or-just-confidently-ambitious/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F10%2Fare-you-an-egomaniac-or-just-confidently-ambitious%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F10%2Fare-you-an-egomaniac-or-just-confidently-ambitious%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>A recent article of an <a href="http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/09/are-you-an-egom.html">interview by Guy Kawasaki</a> on the authors of a book called &#8220;egonomics: What Makes Ego Our Greatest Asset (or Most Expensive Liability)&#8221; is a great read for anyone moving up the ranks of their career and other avenues of potential success in life. <img src="http://blog.guykawasaki.com//egonomics%20right[1].jpg" alt=" egonomics: What Makes Ego Our Greatest Asset (or Most Expensive Liability" style="float:right;" /><br />
<span id="more-73"></span><br />
Personally I find that a certain amount of ego is complementary to your professional reputation. One of the first answers in the interview suggests that if your ego has been boosted by success in the past, if one is not careful, that success creates the illusion that it was them alone that achieved that success. And the more publicly visible they are, the more they believe the headlines that attribute their success to just them. </p>
<p>I firmly believe that if you work hard on something and achieved success, your reputation will be increased naturally because word will get around eventually. So keeping modest and being humble of one&#8217;s success is not a bad thing at all. The author suggests that a potential combination of ambition, ideas, and healthy ego drives one&#8217;s success. So as with many things in life, finding the right balance is something one may just have to learn by making mistakes.</p>
<p>Several obvious tell tale signs of breaking the barrier to becoming an egomaniac that I found interesting in the article:</p>
<ul>
<li>Seeing someone you work with as a rival and think about how to beat them.</li>
<li>Taking disagreement with your ideas personally.</li>
<li>Compulsively following a competitors lead so they&#8217;re not doing anything you&#8217;re not.</li>
<li>Criticizing competitor&#8217;s strategies and prematurely discard them as irrelevant.</li>
<li>Disagreeing with someone&#8217;s point just because they&#8217;re the one who said it.</li>
<li>Feeling worse about where you are when you see what others achieve.</li>
<li>Seeking acceptance: desiring respect and recognition interferes with success.</li>
</ul>
<p>So now you&#8217;re probably wondering what might be considered a &#8220;healthy ego&#8221;? The following interview excerpt might enlighten you:</p>
<blockquote><p>Genuine confidence; confidence that doesn&#8217;t have to exert itself to prove it&#8217;s confidence. Healthy ego keeps us from thinking too highly or too little of ourselves and reminds us how far we have come while at the same time helping us see how far short we are of what we can be. But to understand what healthy ego is, you have to understand the relationship between ego and humility. For most people, tradition holds that the opposite of excessive ego is humility, when in fact having too little ego is just as dangerous and unproductive as having too much. </p></blockquote>
<p>There are also those people who say that extremely confident and ambitious people can also show signs of being an egomaniac. I can&#8217;t argue with this idea either, but if you can balance the image of the ego with your humility and remembering how you achieved success in your life (if you started with humble beginnings), then you might just live a more harmonious life.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/10/are-you-an-egomaniac-or-just-confidently-ambitious/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Another reason to love Apple + the iPhone</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/06/another-reason-to-love-apple-the-iphone/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/06/another-reason-to-love-apple-the-iphone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:04:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[iPhone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/09/06/another-reason-to-love-apple-the-iphone/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Steve Jobs deserves an applause again! In addition to the recent price drop from Apple for the 8GB iPhone model,[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/06/another-reason-to-love-apple-the-iphone/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F06%2Fanother-reason-to-love-apple-the-iphone%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F09%2F06%2Fanother-reason-to-love-apple-the-iphone%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Steve Jobs deserves an applause again!</p>
<p>In addition to the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/05/apple-cuts-iphone-price-to-399/">recent price drop</a> from Apple for the 8GB iPhone model, an <a href="http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/">open letter</a> from Steve Jobs gives any first-to-buy iPhone owners a $100 offer towards other Apple gear.</p>
<p>Are you loving apple yet?</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/09/06/another-reason-to-love-apple-the-iphone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Avoid the 10 Biggest Mistakes Freelancers Make</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/28/how-to-avoid-the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/28/how-to-avoid-the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:44:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/08/28/how-to-avoid-the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Having been a freeleancer myself in several realms (branding / design, IT / software architecture and engineering, business development and[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/28/how-to-avoid-the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F28%2Fhow-to-avoid-the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F28%2Fhow-to-avoid-the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Having been a freeleancer myself in several realms (branding / design, IT / software architecture and engineering, business development and strategy planning, operations) I&#8217;ve learned a lot from my own experience dealing with clients of all types. I recently came upon a great <a href="http://digg.com/design/The_10_Biggest_Mistakes_Freelancers_Make_and_How_to_Avoid_Them">Digg post</a> that might help fellow free lancers out there to avoid certain mistakes that could hurt your livelihood and career. A lot of these tips I&#8217;ve learned through my own sweat but the writer of the original post puts it altogether so well.</p>
<p>These mistakes can easily be made by design firms and other outsourcing companies as well so this doesn&#8217;t just apply to potential freelancers.<br />
<span id="more-70"></span><br />
A lot of it is common sense but the gist is as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Missing deadlines.</li>
<li>Charging too little.</li>
<li>Lack of preliminary research. </li>
<li>Choosing the wrong clients.</li>
<li>Getting too personal. </li>
<li>Letting off steam. </li>
<li>Not proposing a follow-up idea. </li>
<li>Not having multiple income streams.</li>
<li>Allowing yourself to slack.</li>
<li>Failing to be yourself.</li>
</ol>
<p>If you&#8217;re interested in what you&#8217;ve read so far, I recommend you check out the original blog <a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make-and-how-to-avoid-them/">post</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to this post, there are several other good articles at FreeLanceSwitch.com:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/the-dos-and-donts-of-selling-to-clients/">The Dos And Don&#8217;ts Of Selling To Clients</a><br />
<blockquote><p>Do you have loads of clients fighting with each other for the chance to hire you? If so, you can skip this article. If not, you likely spend some time selling yourself to potential clients. So read on, because we&#8217;re going to talk about the dos and don&#8217;ts of selling.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li><a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/start/balancing-employment-and-freelance-work/">Balancing Employment and Freelance Work</a><br />
<blockquote><p>Not all of us have the guts to freelance full-time right away and you can count this intrepid journalist as one of the cowards.</p>
<p>As self-employment can be slow to begin, some of us do prefer the security of a steady pay-cheque while making the transition, so here are some of the ways I&#8217;ve found to make it work while working for The Man.
</p></blockquote>
</li>
<li><a href="http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/10-essential-habits-for-freelance-workers/">10 Essential Habits for Freelance Workers</a><br />
<blockquote><p>The key, I&#8217;ve found, is to develop certain habits that will keep you not only disciplined but successful. Simple habits, to be sure, but ones that can go a long way towards taking you from a broke freelancer to a happy and productive one.</p></blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/28/how-to-avoid-the-10-biggest-mistakes-freelancers-make/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Essential TabletPC tools and software</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/19/essential-tabletpc-tools-and-software/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/19/essential-tabletpc-tools-and-software/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:15:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Displays]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tablet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/08/19/essential-tabletpc-tools-and-software/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So I&#8217;ve been yapping about touch screen technologies a lot this year (Apple iPhone, Microsoft Surface, Jeff Han&#8217;s Multi-touch) and[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/19/essential-tabletpc-tools-and-software/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F19%2Fessential-tabletpc-tools-and-software%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F19%2Fessential-tabletpc-tools-and-software%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>So I&#8217;ve been yapping about touch screen technologies a lot this year (<a href="/category/technology/iphone/">Apple iPhone</a>, <a href="http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/06/01/multi-touch-interactive-display-technology-matured/">Microsoft Surface</a>, <a href="http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/06/01/multi-touch-interactive-display-technology-matured/">Jeff Han&#8217;s Multi-touch</a>) and you may have enjoyed the essential tools I&#8217;ve posted for Apple&#8217;s iPhone but I thought that my fellow TabletPC friends out there could enjoy some of the tools and resources that I&#8217;ve been enjoying on my TabletPC.</p>
<p>Also if you&#8217;re not yet a TabletPC lover and are thinking about getting a laptop PC in the near future, I recommend you review and compare the prices / features of your choice notebooks and also the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.tabletpcreview.com/">top TabletPC&#8217;s</a> out there. I own the <a target="_blank" href="http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/x-series-tablet">Lenovo Thinkpad X61 TabletPC</a> which I believe to be the best TabletPC out there by far in comparison to the others.</p>
<p>Now here are your tools.  Enjoy!<br />
<span id="more-67"></span><br />
<strong>My Favorite TabletPC Software</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.artrage.com/artrage.html">ArtRage</a> &#8211; It&#8217;s free (limited features), and it&#8217;s amazing. Kids, adults alike have loved this application that I&#8217;ve had on my tablet they love the ability to be able to paint on a canvas just like an artist would do.  You can create some AMAZING art with an organic quality I&#8217;ve just never seen on a PC. Try installing it now and use the &#8220;Load Tracing Paper&#8221; feature and show off your masterpiece to everyone <img src='http://omaruddin.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' />
</li>
<li><a href="http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidAppFolder?clid=1033&#038;p1=onenote">Microsoft OneNote</a> &#8211; This is the most used tool on my TabletPC. I use it for meeting recordings and notetaking. I use it for brainstorming ideas, designing business requirements and workflows for my ventures. I love the ability to OCR anything (screen clippings from other apps or websites, and even what I doodle or jot down). The software allows you to organize yourself in hierarchical groups of tabs so you can organize your notes the way you want. Honestly I&#8217;m not trying to make a sales pitch here, but just try it out, whether you&#8217;re a student, a doctor, or engineer you&#8217;ll appreciate OneNote&#8217;s power.</li>
<li><a href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&#038;id=6848332">Alias SketchBook Pro (now owned by Autodesk)</a>- It&#8217;s not free, but it is different from ArtRage. The tool is more for penciling, concept drawings, sketches, illustrations, fine art, drawings, annotation, education. <a href="http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&#038;id=6848893">Check out</a> what people are doing with Sketchbook Pro.
<li><a href="http://www.mindjet.com/us/products/mindmanager_pro7/quicktour.php">Mindjet MindManager Pro</a> &#8211; MindManager software, a <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map">mind mapping</a> tool that&#8217;s also optimized for the TabletPC, inspires people and businesses to align individuals and teams, engage and excites employees, accelerate business processes and win new business faster.
</ul>
<hr/>
Here are more useful resources, blogs, news and software developer sites concerning the TabletPC. I recommend visiting all of these links!</p>
<p><strong><br />
TabletPC Software Directories</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/tabletpc.mspx">Microsoft TabletPC Powertoys</a> &#8211; All of Microsoft&#8217;s Powertoys made just to take advantage of the TabletPC</li>
<li><a href="http://www.tabletpcpost.com/">TabletPC Post</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tabletpc2.com/Software.htm">TabletPC2.com Software Directory</a></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>TabletPC Enthusiast Related Blogs, News, and Forum Sites</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottsListOfGreatToolsForYourTabletPC.aspx">Scott&#8217;s List of Great Tools for your TabletPC</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tabletpcbuzz.com/">TabletPC Buzz</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.studenttabletpc.com/">Student TabletPC Blog and News Site</a> &#8211; An excellent blog for students to keep up to date on the TabletPC world</li>
<li><a href="http://www.tabletpc2.com/">TabletPc2.com</a> &#8211;<br />
          The Place for Tablet PC and UMPC Comparisons, News, Reviews and Information</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>TabletPC Developer Resources</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://tabletdev.com/">TabletDev.com</a> &#8211; Essential information for Tablet PC developers and users.
 </li>
<li><a href="http://www.tabletuml.com/OtherTabletTools.aspx">TabletUML.com</a> &#8211; A UML tool for Tablet PCs (that I highly recommend if you&#8217;re a software engineer or architect)</li>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/19/essential-tabletpc-tools-and-software/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A New Theoretical Model for time travel being imagined</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/13/a-new-theoretical-model-for-time-travel-being-imagined/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/13/a-new-theoretical-model-for-time-travel-being-imagined/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:18:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Physics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/08/13/a-new-theoretical-model-for-time-travel-being-imagined/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Technion Israel Institute of Technology researchers have developed a theoretical model of a time machine that, in the distant future,[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/13/a-new-theoretical-model-for-time-travel-being-imagined/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F13%2Fa-new-theoretical-model-for-time-travel-being-imagined%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F13%2Fa-new-theoretical-model-for-time-travel-being-imagined%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Technion Israel Institute of Technology researchers have developed a theoretical model of a time machine that, in the distant future, could possibly enable future generations to travel into the past. An article on this research was published last week in the scientific journal <a href="http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&#038;id=PRVDAQ000076000004044002000001&#038;idtype=cvips&#038;gifs=yes">Physical Review</a>. </p>
<p>By tweaking Einstein&#8217;s space time and general relativity models these researchers are becoming more confident with the idea of travelling back in time, something that most scientists believe to be improbable because of the paradoxes and other reasons that could happen if one did so.  Curving space time, as is the basis for wormholes to travel instantaneously from one point in space to another, is the basis for this research. So instead of going to another space point in your time, you go from your point in time to another point in time.<br />
<span id="more-66"></span><br />
Several issues with the stability of such a curve of space time that can cause disturbances are at the forefront of the research which the scientists hope one day the world will be able to solve.</p>
<p>Many people believe that if a time machine using such technology were ever possible, then why isn&#8217;t there any evidence of people coming back and telling us about it? If the positive benefit of time travel into the past is to undo our own mistakes in this world, why hasn&#8217;t it already been done, or would we even feel the effect in our reality?</p>
<p>The arguments on all sides of the subject bring up good points, but if we are to expect any evolution in this technology we should continue the discussion until these theories can be completely thrown away, by doing scientific research to rule it out.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/13/a-new-theoretical-model-for-time-travel-being-imagined/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The fun begins on the iPhone</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/the-fun-begins-on-the-iphone/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/the-fun-begins-on-the-iphone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Aug 2007 23:39:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mash Ups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/the-fun-begins-on-the-iphone/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here are some great tools, tweaks, hacks, and other cool stuff for your iPhone. I&#8217;ll probably be posting more stuff[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/the-fun-begins-on-the-iphone/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F07%2Fthe-fun-begins-on-the-iphone%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F07%2Fthe-fun-begins-on-the-iphone%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>Here are some great tools, tweaks, hacks, and other cool stuff for your iPhone.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll probably be posting more stuff like this so stay tuned.</p>
<p>If anyone has any good tools that may be useful, feel free to drop a comment with the url(s).<br />
<span id="more-45"></span></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59902072/">199 wallpapers for the iPhone by ^manicho on deviantART</a><br/> <img id="image54" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/iphone-wallpapers-199.thumbnail.png" alt="199 Wallpapers for your iPhone" />
</li>
<li><a href="http://iweathr.com/iweathr/">iWeathr &#8211; iPhone Doppler Radar</a><br/><img id="image47" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/iweathr.thumbnail.png" alt="iWeathr - iPhone Doppler Radar" />
</li>
<li><a href="http://macmost.com/iphonegames/">MacMost iPhone Games</a><br/> <img id="image48" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/iphonegames.thumbnail.png" alt="iPhone Games" /></li>
<li><a href="http://davidcann.com/iPhonify/GoogleReader/">iPhonify &#8211; Google Reader</a><br/> <img id="image52" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/google-reader-iphone.thumbnail.jpg" alt="Google Reader for iPhone" /></li>
<li><a href="http://www.efksoft.com/products/iphoneringtonemaker/index.htm">iPhone RingtoneMaker</a><br/> <img id="image51" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/iphone-ringtonemaker.thumbnail.gif" alt="iPhone Ringtone Maker" /></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tadalist.com/">iPhone TadaList</a><br/><img id="image50" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/itada-tap-small.thumbnail.jpg" alt="iTada" /> </li>
<li><a href="http://appmarks.com">AppMarks</a><br/> <img id="image49" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/appmarks.thumbnail.png" alt="AppMarks.com" /></li>
<li><a href="http://www.iphonealley.com/news/ifuntastic-gets-an-update-again">iFuntastic &#8211; Tweak for your iPhone (requires OSX)</a><br/> <img id="image53" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ifuntasticv21home.thumbnail.png" alt="iFuntastic" /></li>
<li><a href="http://code.google.com/p/iphonenes/">NES Emulator (Native for iPhone)</a><br/> <img id="image55" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/nes-emulator.thumbnail.png" alt="NES Emulator" /></li>
<li><a href="http://iphone.fluther.com/">iPhone Fluther -Tap the collective </a><br/> </li>
<li><a href="http://fastapp.iphoneapplicationlist.com/">FastApps</a><br/> <img id="image59" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/fastapp.thumbnail.png" alt="FastApp" /></li>
<li><a href="http://www.flickim.com/">FlickIM</a><br/><img id="image60" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/flickim.thumbnail.png" alt="FlickIM - AOL Instant Messenger iPhone safari client" /> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.awasteofpixels.com/iphoneapps/bbcnewsapp/">BBSNews for iPhone</a><br/> </li>
<li><a href="http://gobekdeligi.com/idelicious/">i.del.icio.us</a><br/> </li>
<li><a href="http://ichess.morfik.com/">iChess</a><br/> <img id="image61" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/ichess.thumbnail.png" alt="iChess" /></li>
<li><a href="http://labs.demuxdigital.com/iphone/">iPhone Music Discovery</a><br/><img id="image62" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/seeqpod.thumbnail.png" alt="iPhone Music Discover - Audioscrobbler + Seeqpod" /> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.tourofdc.org/restaurants/iphone/"></a><br/> <img id="image63" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/dc-restaurants.thumbnail.png" alt="TourOfDC -- Restaurants" /></li>
<p><!--
<li><a href=""></a><br/> </li>
<p>&#8211;></p>
<li><a href="http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/iphone-software">iLounge &#8211; iPhone Software Directory</a>
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.addfone.com/">AddFone.com</a> &#8211; This site has a directory of over 83 web applications specifically built for the iPhone, and claims to be the largest database. Its simple search interface can be accessed on mobile devices. It contains links to web apps for anything from calculators to bookmark managers to a Google Reader app.
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.appleopolis.com/"></a>An Apple iPhone application directory. This site was created as a way to help developers and users get the best possible experience for their iPhones. The team is also working on a way for users to start an account and be able to manage all of their iPhone applications from one central location. This site has everything from Digg, Cheap gas, and LivePhone which integrates Xbox Live with the iPhone.  </li>
</ul>
<p>iPhone Development / Hacks</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/another-one-bites-the-dust/iphone-file-system-hacked-custom-ringtones-to-come-soon-276723.php">iPhone File System Hacked, Custom Ringtones to Come Soon</a><br/> <img id="image56" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/iphone-hacked.thumbnail.png" alt="iPhone Hacked" /></li>
<li><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/29/binaries-source-outed-for-first-3rd-party-iphone-app/">Hello World Native app for iPhone source code released</a><br/> <img id="image57" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/iphone-hello-world.thumbnail.jpg" alt="Binaries, source outed for first 3rd party iPhone app" /></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2007/08/03/iphone-screenshot-utility/">iPhone screenshot utility</a><br/> </li>
<li><a href="http://tutorials20.com/design/design-your-iphone-widgets/">Design Your iPhone Widgets</a><br/> <img id="image58" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/tutorial_iphone2.thumbnail.png" alt="Design your iPhone Widgets and Icons" /></li>
</ul>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/the-fun-begins-on-the-iphone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>I love my iPhone!</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/i-love-my-iphone/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/i-love-my-iphone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:48:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iPhone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/i-love-my-iphone/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Well it&#8217;s been about two weeks since I&#8217;ve gotten my Apple iPhone. I must say overall I&#8217;m in love with[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/i-love-my-iphone/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F07%2Fi-love-my-iphone%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F07%2Fi-love-my-iphone%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p><img id="image64" src="http://www.omaruddin.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/iphonehero20070702.png" alt="Apple iPhone" style="margin-right:10px;"/><br/><br/>Well it&#8217;s been about two weeks since I&#8217;ve gotten my Apple <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone">iPhone</a>. I must say overall I&#8217;m in love with the phone. I say this adamantly because honestly I&#8217;ve never been able to say this about any other phone I&#8217;ve purchased before. I&#8217;ve been a Microsoft Mobile and Pocket PC user for years but with the Microsoft phones and PDAs I&#8217;ve also experienced OS issues, had to reboot. I guess I&#8217;m used to that with Windows in general!<br />
<span id="more-34"></span><br />
The hype around the iPhone was not over done, it really is all that. Everyone that&#8217;s seen me using the phone is immediately attracted to it, asking a bunch of questions and about the AT&#038;T Plans. Apple predicts 10 million iPhones to be sold in 2008, and they have the right idea especially if they release 2GB <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news103298878.html">Nano-style models</a> so that people can afford a better price point.</p>
<p>Besides being the all-in-one mobile gadget that people have dreamed about in the mobile industry for years, the idea of a truly powerful and useful internet experience is a strategy that Apple and Steve Jobs have been promoting since the hype began. With the touch screen innovation built in surfing the web even on non-mobile designed web sites is fast, easy and intuitive. Within days of launch of the iPhone coders have been releasing stripped down versions of existing services (chat, widgets, rss readers, games, etc.) all using the Safari web browser. Natively compiled applications like Google Maps and Youtube that come packaged with the iPhone are great and people have already gotten around Apple&#8217;s lack of a native development SDK by hacking into the file system, writing &#8220;Hello World!&#8221; apps, tweaking tools to control home screen, ring tones, and more.</p>
<p>Apple&#8217;s stock has been doing well but I think over the next year and this coming holiday season you should keep an eye on their metrics. </p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been talking to BlackBerry lovers who aren&#8217;t keen on the business benefits of the iPhone. But I think in time they will come to see the benefits, especially when more of Google&#8217;s services are optimized for the iPhone, native or via Safari. One of my friends said &#8220;well I like the BlackBerry scroll wheel, and not having to look at the keyboard to know what I&#8217;m doing when I&#8217;m driving.&#8221; I said &#8220;oh ok, good luck with driving and multi tasking on your phone!&#8221;.</p>
<p>Email, web, iTunes/music, documents, PDFs, Text Messages, Photo Gallery, Camera, Calendar, World clock, youtube, Google Maps, Weather updates, calculators&#8230; you wonder what this list is? This is a list of features I remembered just looking at the pretty, sleek device&#8217;s home screen. To add to the iPhone usefulness, check out this clip from Conan O&#8217;Brien :</p>
<blockquote><p>
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1xXNoB3t8vM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1xXNoB3t8vM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
</p></blockquote>
<p>I know this phone won&#8217;t be in everyone&#8217;s budget just yet, but before you knock the device itself, go to the Apple Store or an AT&#038;T store and play with it.  It will change the way you think about communication and mobile phones in general.</p>
<p><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YgW7or1TuFk"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YgW7or1TuFk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p>
<p>Stay Tuned for my essential tools, gadgets, tweaks, hacks and favorite links for the iPhone.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/07/i-love-my-iphone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Music encourages brain to pay attention and make predictions</title>
		<link>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/01/music-encourages-brain-to-pay-attention-and-making-predictions/</link>
		<comments>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/01/music-encourages-brain-to-pay-attention-and-making-predictions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:59:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>omar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.omaruddin.com/2007/08/01/music-encourages-brain-to-pay-attention-and-making-predictions/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A research team from the Standford University School of Medicine has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out[...]<br/><br/><a class="more" href="http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/01/music-encourages-brain-to-pay-attention-and-making-predictions/">Read on...</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div class="tweetmeme_button" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;">
			<a href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F01%2Fmusic-encourages-brain-to-pay-attention-and-making-predictions%2F"><br />
				<img src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http%3A%2F%2Fomaruddin.com%2F2007%2F08%2F01%2Fmusic-encourages-brain-to-pay-attention-and-making-predictions%2F&amp;source=omaruddin&amp;style=normal&amp;service=bit.ly&amp;service_api=omaru%3AR_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;space=R_b5922df941f7caa05a4229eb5611bd1c&amp;b=2" height="61" width="50" /><br />
			</a>
		</div>
<p>A research team from the Standford University School of Medicine has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out the chaotic world around it.  The team showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory.<br />
<span id="more-46"></span><br />
I always enjoy listening to various types of music while I&#8217;m sitting at my desk, either through headphones or nice monitors. Now it seems I was just doing what was instinctual!</p>
<p>Music engages the brain over a period of time, a co-author of the study said, and the process of listening to music could be a way that the brain sharpens its ability to anticipate events and sustain attention. </p>
<p>According to the researchers, their findings expand on previous functional brain imaging studies of anticipation, which is at the heart of the musical experience. Even non-musicians are actively engaged, at least subconsciously, in tracking the ongoing development of a musical piece, and forming predictions about what will come next. Typically in music, when something will come next is known, because of the music&#8217;s underlying pulse or rhythm, but what will occur next is less known, they said. </p>
<p>This is why when you&#8217;re listening to music at a concert or club, you sometimes feel annoyed when the flow of music is not as your brain expected to be (very common when listening to some bad DJ&#8217;s!).</p>
<p>So if you have the luxury of listening to music at your office or desk, you might find yourself paying more attention than if listening to nothing!</p>
<p>Find out more at the original article on <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news105191059.html">PhysOrg.com</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://omaruddin.com/2007/08/01/music-encourages-brain-to-pay-attention-and-making-predictions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

