TChat event for 15 feb 2010
TChat event for 15 feb 2010
Last Monday we had a very interesting TChat event Held in the final years project room in SQU (what is TChat here)
The topics were as follows:
1-Qais, Yamani and Ayman AL Fadhaily discussed the current issues that our T-Chat and omandev group are facing to become a recognized group
Initially Ahmed AL Yamani welcomed the attendees of the Tchat and gave an overview of who we are and what we are trying to achieve. Then Qais started explaining the current statues of the group and how much it has actually done. During the talk lots of issues and problems faced by the group has been raised and discussed. Later Ayman AL Fadhily joined the talk by giving advices of his previews experiences and mentioned few success & failure stories that he went through. It was very help full and productive discussion so thanks very much Ahmed Qais and Ayman.
2-Mohammed Hassawi : Go Green Initiative (PrePeat Desktop Printer Can Erase/Write Documents
Mohammed discussed a product from Japan, which is a re-writable printer. This printer prints on a special kind of sheets with a very special technique without the use of tuner. An important information regarding these sheets is each sheet could be re-used (get erased and get printed on it again) 1000 times. The printer is considered environment friendly printer cause it is not using tuner and in the same time reduces the need of lots of papers and by doing so it reduces the number of trees got cut every day.
After demonstrating how printer actually works the group had discussion on how it could be used in Oman and how can organizations in Oman move their paper printing from regular printers to these printers.
3-Saif AL Sharji : Ypeer
After Mohammed saif gave us a detailed and very intresting presentation regarding Ypeer (who are they , how they started, their mission , vision & objects. To get more information regarding Ypeer please visit http://www.youthpeer.org/
Then Saif explained Ypeers role in Oman what they have done till now and what are their future plans. Finally the group had discussion and suggestions around Ypeer’s activities. This talk was one of the very intresting talks ever in T-Chats and everyone was very glad to attend it. Thank you siaf.
4-Mohammed AL Hassawi : Oman Dev Brand new
The last topic was the re-design on Omandev.net and it was given again by Mohammed AL Hassawi. Mohammed showed two designs for the mainpage which we choose the current one from. Then Mohammed discussed and explained the design and coloring of the internal parts of the site. We are trying (slowly and lazily) to implement those designs to our site as you can see few parts of the site already has been changed to go with the new designs still there is lots of work to be done. Special thanks to Hassawi for helping us with the design.
Finally we would like to thank all the speakers of this T-Chat and also special thanks to Ahmed AL Habsi who preserved the memories of this T Chat into very nicely taken pictures with his camera and Khalid AL Mamari for audio recording the important parts of the topics.
PS: a newer TChat already took place yasterday , but i was very lazy to finish this post before know any how i hope khalid will be much better than me and most about yasterday’s TChat soon
Read MoreThe First Symposium on Free Source in Oman
open source logos
“
We are pleased to announce that ITA will held the first symposium on free software on the 9th of March 2010, the main objectives of the symposium is to shed the light on ITA national initiative to promote
This initiative comes as part of Information Technology Authority (ITA) strategic directions to play a neutral role towards promoting different technologies.
The symposium shall raise the awareness about the importance of free software because of its potential and competitive characteristics comparing with the commercial software.
The symposium will host a number of key speakers from different countries who will present different topics on issues related to free software movement and philosophy, Arab world initiatives towards promoting the use of free software at different levels and also the symposium will address the local needs to develop such industry in the Sultanate.
During the opening ceremony of the symposium ITA will sign a number of memorandums of understanding with Sultan Qaboos University, Nizwa University and Muscat Higher College of Technology to support the national initiative implementation.
“
The previous is an internal circulation coming to you (after taking permission) directly from ITA internal website.
As many of you know this is the first symposium on free source , in fact this the first Government organized free source related event ever (as far as I know ). It is a great that the young Information Technology Authority (ITA) already exploring the Free Software as a way to implement eOman initiative. For me I will be eagerly waiting to meet Richard Stallman the founder of Free Software Foundation.
My second most exciting thing is ITA signing memorandums of understanding with the educational institutes. It seems that it will be the start of free source movement in Oman. If true, this will make the educational institutes into active and direct contributors to eOman vision through free software.
Check the event website : http://www.ita.gov.om/fss
Read MoreO’Reilly, Developing Android Applications
android
Last week, O’Reilly started a free training Android course, I had the chance to attend it, all of it, unlike some of my friends who couldn’t stay up till late night 
I also had the chance to take notes, .. I will post the notes of the first lecture at the end of this post (its my notes, do not expect to understand everything from it because you did not write it )
the lecture started with the basic principles on how Android works, … you know .. the “useless things that is good to know” sort of things, than some tips on installations and some basic “flash light” program, .. and during that whole thing a lot of questions were made by the people watching the course, .. some questions are really irrelevant and useless, while others were interesting.
Before i post my notes i would like to mention my opinion about the course from the first lecture (this opinion is merely my personal opinion). It is my first time coding Android, .. but it is NOTmy first time coding
My opinion on Tony the lecturer
He seems to know somethings on Android, more than most of us obviously, but i am afraid that I expected the lecture to be more professional, I mean during the lecture, Tony was exploring the code and how things work, i did not find him mastering the language, … but in my opinion as long as he is ahead of us at least one step, than praise him
My humble opinion about the Android programming language
Android relies heavily on user-defined XML tags (or that is what i saw from the first lecture). its not a good or bad thing, .. it is just … different i guess.
It is a very interesting course and i would like to encourage anyone who has the slightest interest in developing mobile applications to attend this course
Anyways .. without further dues, … here are my notes
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linux>Native Libraries > Run time + Dalvik VM > andriod framework (activity manager, content Provider, Location manager, Notification manager,..) > System apps (contacts, Phone Dialer, Email, Web Browser)
app: code + R resources (movie, xml, pic)
Activity: single screen. app have many activities
intent: code to accomplish a verb (call number, open contacts)
developer.andriod.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html
package name > unique
min SDK Version, "API LEVEL", Andriod 1.5 > 3
manifest (Like in J2ME, configuration file)
main.XML have app configuration (like orientation, gravity position of the test")
String.XML
"@String/Hello" > Macros, u can use it for localization
"@String/Red" >> you can set Red= "Red hat" in String.XML
Color.XML
#FFFF0000
android:background="@color/red"
activity > screen > .java
R class generated automatically, each new resource will be added automaticallyin the R class
you can add new elements in main.xml like "button" and you can set its attributes (via XML Tags)
the @+id adds unique ID by default
in JAVA (RefFlashActivity.Java)
Button greenButton = (Button)findViewById(R.id.green_button);
greenButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener(){...})
Intent intent = new intent(activ.this, act2.class);
startActivity(intent);
the above will change from one screen to another.
Here is answer to right to left: Google tracks issues and feature requests at Google Code's site. As of January 2010[update], the most requested ("starred") feature is the support for right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.[90][91]
http://developer.android.com/reference/java/text/Bidi.html
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T Chat
TChat
- Ahmed Yamani : Assembly visual simulator (project demo)
- Ahmed Yamani & Saud AL Zakwani : Tips , Ideas on getting Omandev.net back to life
- ALL : Snacks
- Khalid : Tutorial on how to make Tutorials
- Ali AL Lawati : SQL quiz (the one who solve it first will have his dinner for free (on me) ) — no one answered it
- ALL : Dinner
China shuts down Major training website for hackers
China has closed down what is believed to be the country’s biggest training website for hackers, state media has reported. 
They say the site, Black Hawk Safety Net, gave lessons in hacking and sold downloads of malicious software.
The reports say three people suspected of running the site were arrested.
Hacking is a sensitive topic for China, especially since the internet giant Google recently threatened to pull out of the country.
Google said China-based hackers had attacked its operations but the Chinese government denied any involvement.
The hacker training operation openly recruited thousands of members online and provided them with cyber attack lessons and Trojan software, the China Daily and the Wuhan Evening News said.
Trojans, which can allow outside access to a computer when implanted, are used by hackers to illegally control computers.
Black Hawk Safety Net recruited more than 12,000 paying subscribers and collected more than seven million yuan ($1m: £650,000) in membership fees, while another 170,000 people had signed up for free membership, the paper said.
The Hubei government refused to comment on the reports.
It was unclear when the shutdown had taken place but the Black Hawk Safety Net site was unavailable on Monday.
Cyber attacks
In January Google threatened to pull out of China unless the government relented on censorship.
It said it had uncovered a computer attack that tried to plunder its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists protesting against Chinese policies.
Government officials have defended China’s online censorship and said the country is the biggest victim of web attacks.
China has some 350 million internet users – more than any other country – and provides a lucrative search-engine market worth an estimated $1bn last year.
Google holds about a third of the country’s search market, with Chinese rival Baidu having more than 60%.
The BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says that the reports made no link between the hacking site and Google’s allegations.
But the case will help authorities show that China is taking action against those who hack into computers, says our correspondent.
Read More