There are lots of changes at the OLPC project lately. A top executive shakeup has happened, and it seems to coincide with a ship in direction from being Open Source to allowing Windows as an alternative.

Walter Bender, President of Software and Content for the OLPC was first sidelined then resigned from the project.

Due to the inflation and soaring cost of living in recent months, there is general discontent in Egypt by the majority of people there.

Although this is nothing unusual in itself, given the stagnant economy for close to three decades, it seems that it has reached a point where most people have had enough and want to send a message to the government.

An American exchange student from Maine stayed with Coptic Christian family in Alexandria, Egypt.

He weighed 155 pounds upon arrival, and returned only at 97 pounds.

He claims that he was not given enough portions to eat, and that the Christian Coptic mandate to fast 200 days a year (with no animal protein) made it happen.

His Egyptian host family denies the allegations. Shaker Hanna says that it is "a lie", with the boy's parents planning to recover some of the costs of his stay.

The local TV news had a short video about an Indian company called Nadir Ali and Co. (NAC). The company is currently run by Managing Director Aftab Ahmad, who is over 70. It is based in Meerut, Utar Pradesh, where it has been operating since 1885.

The company makes musical equipment including horns, trumpets, and drums for many armies around the world as well as famous jazz performers.

In October, the World Bank dubbed Egypt as "World's Top Performer". It rose fast to the 126th place.

Figures for September released by the Egyptian government said growth is at 7.1%. Egypt's revenue rose as oil prices have risen, and as oil rich neighbors poured their revenue into Egypt. Foreign investment in 2006 was $5 billion, more than India.

What are the results? Rolex, BMW, and Mercedes ... Luxury items are being bought by the upper class.

Back in August, opposition newspapers in Egypt reported that president Hosni Mubarak's health has deteriorated, as well as speculation about the succession.

It seems that this is a sensitive topic among the ruling elite,
because in a rare reaction, Mubarak was interviewed in Al Ahram, the
semi official newspaper and the headline read : "I know who is
spreading these rumors and their objectives".

Well, for the last month, I have been in Egypt, on a visit to extended family.

I planned to work via my laptop and had an ADSL installed from Link for that month. On the days I am out of the city, I planned to use the dialup modem.

Sounds like a good plan with all the bases covered. Right? No, wrong!

What happened was a series of unpleasant surprises that left me frustrated.

I have very little time to read general blogs. I visit random blogs of various Egyptians occasionally when a link is passed on to me or when I am lost or something.

I don't know when the topic of this post started to happen, but I am amazed at the amount of foul language in use by Egyptian bloggers currently.

Perhaps it is a meme that I missed, or perhaps something else.

Back in university in Alexandria, a long time ago, there were several Malaysian students on scholarships.

It seems that Egypt is still a touted destination for Malaysians looking for an overseas education.

This article from The Star, Malaysia seems like a propaganda piece by the cultural attache in the Egyptian embassy there, or Sami Omara, an "Egyptian education consultant".

The mummy of Hatshepsut, the most powerful female Pharoah of Egypt has been identified from her tooth.