You shouldn't stop the job hunt during the Holidays!

According to an article I just read, if you are seeking a job, you shouldn't stop the job hunt during the Holidays!! -> Looking For Work? Keep It Up Through the Holidays http://on.wsj.com/u5xu1

My Christmas Corner

Having just moved to Vancouver and living in a small place, here is the output of wishing and trying to have my little Christmas corner! 

That's a small (~45cm high) Christmas tree:

These are some Candy Canes in a Whiskey (Johnnie Walker) glass: 

Also a Christmas Stocking:

Small red Christmas bows on the doors knobs:

And finally a nice background image with Santa:

And here it is after Santa passed!!!

This Christmas Corner's costs were around $10 (excluding the gifts of course!!). So as a conclusion, it's easy and inexpensive to always be able to bring the Christmas spirit to your home! 

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! :)

Fast Easy Chicken Breasts Recipe with Tomatoes & Olives

This is a very easy and fast recipe that you can do. It is especially useful in the case when you have some boneless, skinless, seasoned, frozen chicken breasts and you are tired of just eating them with their normal flavour. This is a tasty version of it!

Ingredients:
- 2 boneless, skinless, seasoned/unseasoned, frozen or not frozen chicken breasts
- salt
- pepper
- oil
- medium tomato
- olives
- oregano
- parsley (dried or fresh)
- garlic (powder form)

Step 1:
Preheat the oven on medium heat or according to what is written on the chicken package, normally between 375 and 450 degrees F.

Step 2:
Season each side of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, then put some oil on both sides as well. You can make some small cuts with a knife in the chicken breasts.

Step 3:
Put the chicken breasts in a baking dish and put it in the oven uncovered. You can rotate the chicken breasts every now and then if you wan them to be cooked evenly from both sides.

Step 4:
While the chicken breasts cook in the oven, you can prepare the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes in cubes. Cut the olives in pieces as well. In a bowl, mix the tomatoes with the olives. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano and parsley to taste. Mix all together and leave on the side.

Step 5:
When the chicken breasts are almost done, take them out of the oven. Add the tomatoes mixture on top of each. Put back inside the oven for a little while, till everything is cooked through or till no water remains in the baking dish.


Let me know how you find it and Bon appetit! :)

"Changing Education Paradigms" by Sir Ken Robinson

Sadly.. I can relate and testify to that part of the talk saying:

"It used to be:
Hard Work
       ↓
   Do Well
       ↓
   College
       ↓
     Job
... but it's not a guarantee anymore".

Sir Ken Robinson gave this talk at Royal Society of Arts (RSA), then it was animated the way seen in the video. Sir Ken Robinson is a world-renowned education and creativity expert. He is the recipient of the RSA Benjamin Frankin award. He also did TED talks that I really enjoy and think will share as well. This is his wikipedia page for more information.

"Finding Great Developers" by Joel Spolsky on Joel on Software

Really an amazing article!

I was reading it basically to know where good employers search for great developers/employees, but it is written the other way around: it is written for employers to find great developers.

It is well written, gives nice insights, simply great!

So if you have a company or someday decide to do a startup and want to be successful by employing great employees, I would definitely recommend you to take a look at that article. As it was written in 2006, in my opinion its beginning might not be totally true with today's market circumstances after the crisis, but the 3 methods (Go to the mountain, Internships and Build your own community) that he explains later on about how to find and employ great developers are simply amazingly written.

Joel Spolsky is the co-founder of "Fog Creek Software" in New York and this post is from his "Joel on Software" blog. 

Let me know your opinion about his methods!

Finding Great Developers by Joel Spolsky on Joel on Software

"How Fresh Graduates Can Grow" by Swaroop C H

That's a nice post that combines such useful links! I would recommend you to read it and check the links that you find relevant.

It talks about the following points:
- Character and Lifestyle
- Career Building
- Get Results
- Read
- Friends
- Learn Your Trade
- Make A Difference

Let me know which of the links there did you find useful for you! :)

How Fresh Graduates Can Grow by Swaroop C H

"Don’t Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice" by Patrick McKenzie

What do you think of this blog post?

Don’t Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice by Patrick McKenzie

A small snippet: "If there was one course I could add to every engineering education, it wouldn’t involve compilers or gates or time complexity.  It would be Realities Of Your Industry 101, because we don’t teach them and this results in lots of unnecessary pain and suffering."

Do you agree with Patrick's opinion?

BBC News - 7 billion people and you: What's your number?

Very nice tool by BBC!

It tells you where you fit in the 7 billion people according to your date of birth, like for example I am the 4,996,698,520th person.

It also tells you your country's population as well as the average yearly growth there and the amount of births, deaths and immigrants each hour.

Then according to your gender, it tells you the average life expectancy.

In each of those steps, it also shows you the numbers for the highest and lowest countries in the world.

It's a nice tool that makes you realize some facts about the world.

So here are my numbers, how about you? It would be nice if you share them with me! :) Here is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515

My results using BBC tool on this link

The Aurora - TSO Photography

Taken from Wikipedia page

The aurora is the appearance of some light in the sky showing different colors.

This video shows this phenomenon in a magical way!


The Aurora from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

As written under the video on the original page:

"I spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years. Shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east. Temperatures around -25 Celsius. Good fun."

Music is Gladiator soundtrack "Now we are free"

Reality about employment these days in a funny comic!

C'est si vrai! Un peu ce qui m'arrive maintenant...

It's so true! Kind of what is happening to me right now...

Taken from PrincessH's SketchBlog: "Un pti peu d'actualité, pour changer...."

Un pti peu d'actualité, pour changer.... - PrincessH's SketchBlog

Fifth Gear: 120mph (~193km/h) Mega Crash -> fastest ever

From Fifth Gear's 120mph Mega Crash page:

"Fifth Gear have a reputation for conducting shocking crash tests, and this time Jonny Smith is conducting our fastest ever smash. With even the most basic cars being able to achieve speeds in excess of 100mph, there's a real possibility of car crashes happening at such speeds. To find out just how devastating such an impact is, we crash a Ford family car into a concrete wall at a speed of 120mph - the unmissable result is both shocking and sobering."

Here is the video:

Installing Android Development Tools (ADT) in Eclipse Error

If you are trying to install the Android SDK, specifically the ADT in Eclipse (especially Eclipse on Linux installed via a package manager) and during the installation it says:  

The operation cannot be completed.  See the details.

Cannot complete the install because one or more required items could not be found.
Software being installed: Android Development Tools 14.0.0.v201110171935-205994 (com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.feature.group 14.0.0.v201110171935-205994)
Missing requirement: Android Development Tools 14.0.0.v201110171935-205994 (com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.feature.group 14.0.0.v201110171935-205994) requires 'org.eclipse.wst.sse.core 0.0.0' but it could not be found


Then here is the solution:

1) In Eclipse, go to "Help" then choose "Install New Software..."

2) Click on "Add" and add the following according to your Eclipse version:

Eclipse Indigo (3.7):
Name: Indigo
Location: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/indigo/

Eclipse Helios (3.6):
Name: Helios
Location: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/helios/

Eclipse Galileo (3.5):
Name: Galileo
Location: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/

Eclipse Ganymede (3.4):
Name: Ganymede
Location: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/ganymede/

3) Press "ok"

4) Then in "Work with" select the ADT Plugin that you added earlier

5) Tick/check the "Developer Tools" checkbox and make sure that the "Contact all update sites during install to find required software" at the bottom of the dialog is also checked/ticked

6) Press "next"

Your ADT should now show no error. Let me know if this solution worked for you! :)

"Self Study" by Natalie Nazanin Abbassi

It is a blog post about Natalie's two different worlds: being an American and being an Iranian. She demonstrates the difference through photos that she takes of herself in different situations. It shows how the same person reacts in two different ways according to the culture that surrounds her/him at that point in time.

It is really a nice work and it also relates to me and reflects some aspects of my life, having also two totally different backgrounds and cultures: Canadian and Egyptian.

Blog post: Self Study by Natalie Nazanin Abbassi

It is a bit freaky with this wireless technology - Morten Ingemann

It is a bit freaky with this wireless technology - Copyright: Morten Ingemann

A funny comic by Morten Ingemann. Morten Ingemann is a cartoonist from Denmark, born in 1960. Here is a site with his comics in Danish and here is a link to the original version of this comic.

Ormie - Arc Productions

From Ormie's page on Arc Productions - Animation & Visual Effects

From Ormie's synopsis on Arc Productions - Animation & Visual Effects:

"Ormie is a Pig, in every sense of the word. Pig see cookie. Pig want cookie. But they are out of reach...or are they? See Ormie's attempts to gain the warm sweet taste that is his obsession.

Ormie has garnered 8 Festival Awards including Best Short Film (Savannah FF 2010, Palm Springs Int'l Shorts Fest 2010, Sprockets 2010, Seattle Int'l FF 2010) and the Audience Award (New York Int'l Chidren's FF 2011).

Developed by Rob Silvestri (Directorial Debut)

Director:
Rob Silvestri"

It's a very funny small animation. Here is the video:

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth - TED Talk

This was filmed and posted in 2007!!!! It is rated as jaw-dropping in TED Talk's Resize by option.

Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos Photosynth on TED.com

Flooding near Bangkok has taken about 25 percent of the world's hard disk manufacturing capacity offline - Slashdot, InfoWorld, Scientific American

News on 18th of October 2011:

Flooding Takes Major Hard Drive Plant Offline; Shortages Predicted - Slashdot

The impending hard drive shortage -- and possible price hikes - InfoWorld

UPDATE 1-Thai floods mean big loss to Western Digital exports-minister - Scientific American 

John Lennon - Imagine

Imagine by John Lennon, from the album Imagine, recorded in 1971. This song is considered an anti-war anthem. According to wikipedia, the lyrics were criticized by religious groups because of the part saying:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

Lennon's reply was the following: "If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion - not without religion, but without this 'my God is bigger than your God' thing - then it can be true."

John Lennon was one of the founding members of The Beatles. 

Here is the song with lyrics:

Preparing for Halloween at Save-On-Foods

I was buying some groceries at Save-On-Foods in Cambie street, Vancouver, when I found this huge Jack-o'-lantern (Halloween carved pumpkin) made out of Coca Cola Zero, A&W Root Beer and Sprite boxes. It's their own way of preparing for Halloween I guess! 

Photo taken with my HTC

Rest in Peace Steve Jobs

The world has lost such an amazing, creative and inspiring person yesterday... Rest in Peace Steve Jobs

A word from him: Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

Screenshot of Apple.com's tribute to Steve Jobs. Picture taken from Wikipedia

Adele - Someone Like You

Adele - Someone Like You: A song that makes you really feel the singer-songwriter's deep feelings...

According to Adele's Wikipedia page, this song was number one in the UK, New Zealand and Australia after she sang it in the 2011 BRIT Awards.

That's a link to her official website.

That's the video clip that was released for this song:



And that's her performance in the 2011 BRIT Awards with lyrics:

Montreal man walks around the world in 11 years

Check this article on Vancouver Sun: Montreal man walks around the world in 11 years

His website: WWWalk | Jean Béliveau » Peace for the children of the world

Photo taken from his website, Album: Canada 3, Photo: 27

What we learned from 5 million books | Video on TED.com

What we learned from 5 million books | Video on TED.com -> A very nice talk!

Gingerbread Cake with Sauce Recipe

A delicious gingerbread cake that, with the sauce added, gives such a nice aroma and smell in the entire house!

Here is what you will need for the Gingerbread Cake:

- 6 tablespoons non-salted butter (softened)

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1/3 cup molasses

- 1 egg

- 1 & 1/2 cups flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

- salt

- 1/2 cup whipping cream (liquid)

- 100 ml milk 

Gingerbread Cake steps: 

Step 1:

In a mixing bowl, mix the butter with the brown sugar until very well mixed. 

Step 2:

Add the molasses and the egg. Beat well together. Then add the liquid whipping cream with the milk. 

Step 3:  

Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and little salt into another bowl. 

Step 4: 

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees C. 

Step 5:

Add small quantities of the flour mixture to the liquids mixture and mix well. Keep doing that until all the flour is added. The resulting mixture should be sticky but not hard. If it is too hard, then add little portions of milk till the mixture feels smooth. 

Step 6: 

Grease a 26cm round baking pan and pour the mixture into it. Make it flat and bake it for 25-35 minutes. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes, otherwise the cake will be spoiled. To test if the cake is ready, insert a toothpick inserted near the center and if it comes out clean then the cake is done. 

Step 7:

After taking out the cake from the oven, let it cool for 5-10 minutes before putting it on a wire rack. 

And here is what you will need for the Sauce:

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 4 & 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

- 1/2 cup cold water

- 1 tablespoon white vinegar

- 1 tablespoon butter

- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Sauce steps: 

Step 1:

While the cake is baking, begin preparing the sauce by mixing the brown sugar, cornstarch, water and vinegar into a cooking pot on medium heat. Stir well until smooth. 

Step 2:

When it is well mixed, add butter and bring to a boil

Step 3:

Let it boil while stirring for few minutes. Do not let it boil too long because it becomes dark and too thick.  

Step 4:

Remove it from the heat and add the vanilla. Stir for a while to help it cool down. 

Step 5:

Add some sauce on top of each Gingerbread cake serving! 

Bon Appetit! :)

The Whirlpool: Beautiful sky and landscape timelapse

Taken from The Whirlpool: Beautiful sky and landscape timelapse: "Here's a beautiful video showing a time-lapse of the sky, clouds and the horizon. Amazingly done and very relaxing.

http://vimeo.com/22439234"