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.

While I all for a long weekend in the only month that does not have one (February), the proposal from the Ontario Liberals wreaks of a bribe.

These are the same party who lied about not increasing taxes, only to impose a hefty health premium. These are the same party who would rather deprive Jews, Catholics and Mennonites of arbitration rather than grant Muslims the same rights.

In the first year of high school in Egypt (equivalent to grade 10 in North America), I had a story called Operation Mastermind by L.G. Alexander, published by Longmans. This was in the mid 1970s.

If Drupal was a country, what would its constitution say?

We, [FAPI] arrays [organized into] nodes ...

Or at least that is what this post on Drupal comments by Bert Boerland implies ...

The Dilbert cartoon strip has a very funny, yet telling one today.

Pointy Haired Bossess (PHBs) often treat number of sheep in a herd like number of programmers on a team. So, for a project that requires 300 man days, the PHB hires 300 people to finish the project in one day!

Hint: See The Mythical Man Month for more details. 

Also see it in the archives.

I managed to induct a non-Egyptian into the "I love Egyptian fava beans" club.

Noel Hidalgo tweeted: "Dear world, fava beans rule".

There are several ways to eat cooked fava beans: see the Egyptian Cuisine Recipes web site ful medames section.

Another scam claiming to be from "Microsoft and AOL email beta".

From: MICROSOFT GOLDEN JUBILEE PROMOTION <crowsds@cox.net>
Date: Aug 31, 2007 4:16 AM
Subject: CONTACT YOUR CLAIMS AGENT(MR KEN GATE) FOR CLAIMS PROCEDURE

Dear Lucky winner,

GOLDEN JUBILEE PROMOTION BY MICROSOFT

The gap between rich and poor is widening. An example from the USA, is that a CEO makes in one day, what a worker makes in an entire year.

Chief executive officers of big U.S. companies earned roughly as much each day last year as the average American production worker did in 12 months, according to a study published Wednesday by advocates of a higher U.S. minimum wage.

The CEOs were paid an average $10.8 million US — including salaries, bonuses and stock options— or more than 364 times the average worker's $29,544, the authors say.

I saw this a while back, and thought that it raises a good point: the cost of experience! 

A furnace repairman coming to a home and after looking at the furnace for about a minute and a half, listening to the rumbles and gurgles. He takes his hammer out and at once precise place he hits the furnace. The furnace starts up and runs fine as if it was brand new.

The bill was $200.

The homeowner asks why so much when all he did was hit it once with a hammer?

The repairman takes back the bill, and itemizes the bill still totaling $200.

Another advance fee fraud email, with a bit of a new wording. 

From: "Mr. Jubril Abubakar." <JubrilAbubakar@new.rr.com>
Date:  Aug 28, 2007 7:59 PM     
Subject: CONTACT MY A/C OFFICER FOR YOUR CHEQUE OF US$700.000.00 COMPENSATION!     

Dear Partner,

Its been quite a long time and maybe you may have forgotten completely about me and my transaction. In all case, I thank God and I am happy to inform you about my success in getting those funds transferred under the co-operation of a new partner from paraguay.