Ahmad's Blog

Google Wave Review

Ahmad — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:15:00 -0800

Google Wave is upon us, and being the proud geek I am, I asked for a membership to the waver's club, and I received. The wait was long and weary ever since Google Wave showed us what was waiting for us, the same day Microsoft launched Bing, I personally think it was a low blow, but I never was a big fan of boxing.

After a I tried out Google Wave for a couple of days, the guys from Hyperlink Podcast Mohamad and Bishr Kayyali put together a nice introduction and review of the service in Arabic, in which I had the honor of participating, so with no further delay, I give you Google Wave.

Google Wave Review [Arabic] from Mohammad Saleh Kayyali on Vimeo.

Twitter Profile SEO Contest

Ahmad — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:06:00 -0800

After receiving a tweet shown below from a friend on twitter bringing my attention to my current Twitter Profile PageRank on Google, which is a whopping 5/10 according to Google PageRank Checker, feel free to check it out.

It hit me, that with all the SEO so called experts out there it should be interesting to see just how high people can go with their profiles on twitter, I know this could easily turn into a cheesy tool of shameless self promotion, but what the hell, its at least worth a laugh, so let it be known, I officially declare the Twitter Profile SEO contest, and lets see what these so called SEO gurus on twitter have to say about it, and let's see just how high you can go with you Twitter Profile PageRank.

Its worth mentioning some high profile Twitterers:

Twitter Profile PageRanks
Twitterer	Google PageRank	Est. # of Followers
New York Times	7/10	1,710,829
Barack Obama	6/10	2,067,820
Guy Kawasaki	6/10	155,262
Mashable	7/10	1,369,990
Ashton Kutcher	4/10	3,399,506
CNN Breaking News	2/10	2,712,530

What's your Twitter PageRank compared to the Twitter Elite? Post your PageRank and Profile Name in the comments.

Thanks for dropping by,

Salam

I Resist (Never Before Campaign) SFW

Ahmad — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 17:38:00 -0800

First I would like to wish all a blessed Ramadhan, and hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

I remember late December 2008 when Gaza was attacked by Israel, how clear the uproar from the region sounded through the New Media outlets was, in addition to the traditional television and news stations like AlJazeera and their Gaza related networks.

Nine months later the outlet I participated in spreading the word of injustice through, Twitter, alongside a number of passionate Arabs and Non-Arabs, saw the effect of global awareness as it spread through it at the time, but most important the echo of it lingers to this day through a grassroot movement of anti-occupation individuals who have taken it upon themselves to spread the word, and revive the memory of those fallen, and why they fell.

I received this video on twitter the other day and thought I would share it with you. I would like to point out that in my opinion, this is a small window on the morality and belief that drive the resistance, and I hope one day that the mainsteam media will find itself presenting the actual spirit of resistance disregarding political affiliations.

Thanks for stopping by,

Salam

LinkedIn More Royal than the King

Ahmad — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:17:00 -0800

I have time and time again proven to be an inconsistent blogger, against all blogging tips laying around the web, I find myself stirred up every now and then on some issue or subject where the only outlet I find sufficient, is here, so bare with me, this could get bumpy.

More than two weeks ago, I encountered an extra hoop to jump through than usual while attempting to login to my LinkedIn account, which I naturally blamed local ISP Firewall settings for, for many websites are being denied access to from our region depending on the country, which I most of the time don't care about that much with all the free proxy and tunneling software out there. Yet I was mistaken, it was LinkedIn that was presenting the new hoops.

I naturally fired up UltraSurf and gave it a try, but for some reason it didn't do the trick, so I went a step further and ran the Vidalia Bundle, where Tor trully represents the God of Thunder in its ability to reach anything, anywhere in an instant. And so I accessed my account in the Tor resulting sluggish bandwidth, but didn't complain.

On April 14th, I attempted to access my account on LinkedIn only to find the welcoming screen shown below instead.

This screenshot was taken on April 19th, 2009 and my account is suspended to this date despite word of LinkedIn allegedly apologizing for this idiocy and correcting this act for other users in Syra.
It has been a trend that is increasing recently, where web users in our region first started to really feel the impact when Google Inc denied access to many subdomains such as code.google.com and other services such as Google Earth and Google Talk and the list goes on. Appalled as we are, some services are just worth the extra hassle, so we go the extra mile to make use of them. But for a Business Social Networking platform such as LinkedIn to deny us the mere representation of our relationships on their site, it just goes to show that some US Based business find themselves attempting to be more royal than the king (the King refers to the US government for those of you who haven't heard of the sanctions).

So I would like LinkedIn to know, I am not a Syrian, but would be proud to if I were one, plus I am an Iraqi, a country that isn't included in the list of US sanctioned countries (Axis of evil ever since the invasion) mentioned in an email LinkedIn sent to myself and to others also shown in ArabCrunch.

Although today April 19th, LinkedIn has graciously allowed us to view their astounding homepage from Syria, this remains an outrage for many reasons, first and foremost, the US based web service providers cannot simply deny access to all users accessing their service from certain countries regardless of nationality. Second online social networking is about reflecting actual human relationships online as well as offline, and that my friends, no government can sanction. LinkedIn suspended my account based on information they gathered, not on physical information such as the IP address I signed in from, which was re-routed via proxy services, meaning they are single handedly seeking out to deny their service from users they suspect are from evil countries!

This should be a very loud alarm for all Middle Eastern individuals related to this matter, because who knows whats next, perhaps Google Mail will decide anyone that has ever connected from an evil country, is also evil and therefore shouldn't be provided all previous information and mail. Lets just pray I'm not giving them ideas as my fiance thinks.

Thanx for stopping by,
Salam

Twe2 Brings us Free SMS

Ahmad — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:36:00 -0800

Ever since I had to flee Iraq in 2003, communication has been my single most important expense. I would calculate how much I could afford spending each month to contact loved ones, relatives, friends...etc, in that order, and the rate went up and down according to means and methods I used for communication, the most expensive would be mobile, the least written old fashioned snail-mail.

Now as the mobile began to present itself as my main communicator, expenses went up, and of course finding cheaper alternatives have ever since, been a priority in my life.

I won't tell you how Facebook has changed my life, we all hate Zuckerberg too much for that, but I will tell you about Twitter. Now for those of you who haven't been introduced to twitter yet, I repeat, for the N^th time, check it out, things are getting quite interesting for (but not exclusive to) Middle Eastern users.

After long a due, Twe2 has made it possible to send and receive SMS messages for free in the region under one condition, you and your receiver have an (also free) account on Twitter. Now many of you could be of similar curiosity and passion as myself, and will say IslamWeb.net have present something similar? Also SMSBoy.com and the list goes on. But today, I bring you a far more accessible, Social Networking integrated, Free SMS service.

This will qualify as one of the most practical Cool Web Applications of the Week in 2009 until something bigger (which I doubt) comes along to change my mind. The reason I find the service so cool, is that it brings together Social Networking and SMS, plus support including ALL Middle Eastern counties, and who knows, maybe one day we will be able to get Facebook alerts on our Mobile passed through twitter! The sad thing is that the same service was shutdown by Twitter in all but 3 countries.

I first read about it here, and it basically works like this: You register for an account on Twitter.com, check to see if your friends or whoever you need to text is on twitter too, if not get them to register, then, simply register at Twe2.com using your Twitter Username and Password, and Vois la! You get your Replies and DM's to your mobile in SMS format.

The only downside to this service, is that it comes with a single line of Advertisement embedded in the sent SMS, which also contains a link to some other Social Networking site, which I find a perfectly acceptable price to pay. If anyone out there knows of a service which allows sending free SMS's to its users in the Middle Eastern Region including Syria and Iraq please share with it us in the comment.

I only hope the heavy hitter Mobile Operators in the region don't shut it down too fast.

Thanx for stopping by,
Salam

Mind Mapping

Ahmad — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:30:00 -0800

Four months ago my boss called me into his office, he gave me that day's task list, then added: "And you might want to use mind mapping to speed up the process". I gazed at him in curiosity wondering what in the world he meant by Mind Mapping, so naturally, the know-it-all in me asked:"is that like NLP boss?" He turned his notebook screen towards me, and started pointing to little circles and octopus looking tentacles coming out of them. I kept staring at it till it started making sense; it was this magical diagram that showed me what my boss' mind looked like, well at least some of the idea's in there. So what is a Mind Map you may ask? Simtech's Answer or Wikipedia's Definition should clear that up for you.

Since I have decided that Mind Maps are actually an invaluable tool to use, I feel others should give it a try, it actually does help get your ideas on paper/document, and helps develop logically structured documents as a result, through a faster, more coherent process.

As an example I have illustrated here an image built with bubbl.us a free online web-based mind mapping tool, shown here is a number of resources it would take to learn Adobe Flex as part of a course I was looking into giving. The idea is that Mind Mapping allowed me to see as a whole all the resources in a visual and logical representation.

From that day on I started trying out software packages, some he suggested, and others I picked up from a list on Wikipedia.

Out of three prospects I did some reading about, I came down to trying out two Mind Mapping software packages:

SimTech Systems MindMapper Pro 8
Mindjet MindManager Pro 7

It was quite interesting to read about Mind Maps from websites and ebooks at first, but after a while I couldn't wait to actually start mapping my mind, so I installed the famous SimTech Systems MindMapper Pro. I must say it wasn't as intuitive as I had anticipated, and I think it was because I hadn't seen anyone actually map their minds before (don't you just love saying that?). But that all changed after I installed Mindjet MindManager, as it came with a simple animated tutorial that teaches you the basics, and assumes you want to learn how to map from scratch.

With time I came to make a final choice of which of the software suites I would finally go with, and being the picky person I am, I made a list of Pros and Cons for everyone to read, hoping it will help you choose your mind mapping helper.

Pros

Contains MindMapper Viewer (Lightweight viewer)	Contains MindMapper Reader (Lightweight viewer)
Export to Multiple File Formats (.PDF, .PPT, .DOC…etc)	Export to Multiple File Formats (.PDF, .PPT, .DOC…etc)
Interactive Quick Start is amazing, intuitive even for someone with no MindMapping Experience	Contains a Rich collection of example Mindmaps to learn from and edit-to-reuse
Designed with MS Office Fluent User Interface
Notes appear as tooltips
Contains a Learning Center
Cons
Doesn't contain toolbar telling me what I'm clicking on in maps (e.g like subtopics, children…etc) - useful when new to using Mind Maps while trying Templates	Doesn't provide a map trackbacking option that allows users to see which other maps this map originates from
Spell check doesn't kick in till after Enter is pressed for topics (after temporarily end editing), which is annoying because I have to click on each word again to correct the spelling mistakes	Doesn't contain auto spell check (must be applied from Menu) and when spell check applied works only for current topic/note
I Would have appreciated if the Benefits of MindMapping contained some links to online content or links to learning center
No direct export to MS Office OneNote despite the ability to export as a .DOC file, which I found a bit annoying

As it turns out, I stuck to MindManager, although I should emphasize the importance of the sample maps that come with MindMapper, they helped me a great deal while I was starting out. Another important issue was office buy-in, which will be an issue for most of you trying to introduce it in your workplace, the way I got others to share my opinion of it was to engage a group in creating mind maps for certain issues and projects.

I must also mention a couple of things, first that I am using Windows XP SP2 coupled tightly with MS Office 2007 for my office needs, that been said, users on different platforms could have significantly different aesthetic preferences due to these factors, and should focus on the matter relating to his/her level of experience with mind mapping and/or usage preferences.

For further information on Mind Mapping you can visit these sites:

UPDATE March 02, 2009:

I forgot to mention a very important resource I received generous knowledge and support from, which is Mind Mapping enthusiasts on Twitter, represented in groups and individuals alike, I thought I would give you a small list to check out if your on twitter, and if your not, well, you should be.

Feel free to ask for further information or explanations in the comments. Thanx for stopping by,

Salam

Fixing the Flex 3 Run-time error #2148

Ahmad — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:15:00 -0800

Since I embarked on learning Flex 3 lately, I have run into my first run time error, and since we should learn from our mistakes, I thought I would share the solution with all you Flex lovers (or haters) out there.

The error I came across is common amongst developers who compile and run their projects on their local machines, I should mention I was dealing with Binded XML data files, the error displayed started with the following:Run-time error #2148: SWF file _ cannot access local resource

So I started a Google search on the issue, and attempted to adjust the Security and Sharing Settings on my notebook but to no end. The environment was as follows:

Developing in Adobe Flex Builder 3
Browsing with Firefox 3.0.6
Flash Player 10 Debugger
XP Pro Service Pack 2

Then I came across this wonderful post by Marco Casario in which he provided a simple and direct solution to the problem:

The only way to make it works is to go adding the arguments to compiler (via Properties - Flex Compiler) : -use-network=false

After a number of projects, I noticed this solution had to be applied every time to overcome the error, which to me seemed a bit tedious and more of a hack than a solution. So I looked into it, and found out that the error was caused by a Flash Player security restriction, which can be finally resolved by allowing Flash Player 8+ to access .swf files on your local machine by adjusting your Flash Player Global Security Settings located here.

All you have to do is add a trusted location in the Settings Manager as shown in the image, here I have added a folder in which I usually store my Flex project files in.

To those of you who get startled from adjusting your player security settings via another website, I share your unease, I find it highly unorthodox to have to access browser plugin security settings online, a question worth asking is: But what if I was offline trying to develop for flash? Adobe answers: Not my problem.

I hope you found this informative, thanks for stopping by.

Salam

Diigo and Stumble - The Rich Surfing Experience

Ahmad — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:07:00 -0800

Once upon a tweet, I was talking to some friends about the constant crashes occurring in Firefox 3.0.5 at the time and my addiction to the add-ons as many of you Firefox users out there know. @RJHintz and @DaveColeman suggested I switch to Google Chrome which I have admittedly found attractive lately (I even use the Chromifox theme for Firefox), and restrain myself to a toolbar called Diigo.

As it appears Diigo is: a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing community. So I googled it, and came to believe the definition provided above by Diigo.com, isn't an overstatement.

Many of you have probably reached the point of, oh crap, not another Social Networking-Web 2.0 Digg spin off? Well, I for one said exactly that, but one thing caught my attention was: It lets you comment on web pages! And it lets you see what others commented all by simply installing a toolbar.

Now if any of you are from the academia domain, this is a life saver, you will now have a central location where al of your notes on websites are saved coupled by neatly arranged bookmarks which you can share with existing online groups, or groups you define for colleagues and/or friends through the Groups section of the platform.

Ever since I started using search engines in general, and Google in particular, I have been in a constant quest to get the most out of it, whether it be a guided search on ASP.NET, or be it a tutorial on 'how to tie a cravat'. Then came Stumble!.

Most of us have seen social bookmarking buttons scattered all over websites, filling up web pages with links to other pages, all a click of a mouse away, just to help you share your experience with others. Now the way StumbleUpon works, is that you install the toolbar (yes - its worth it).

You will be asked to install it directly after signing up for an account, then login. Up till now, nothing changed, but after you sign in, try googling something yourself, what Stumble does, is it adds small icons next to the results other users consider to be good, giving you another layer of actual user feedback to further filter your results, now tell me that's not at least a time saver.

I would sum up the main benefits of using the two services in tandem as follows:

Rich Surfing Experience (via sharing with friends)
Interesting Site Discovery (try asking Stumble for a suggestion in a certain category)
Google Search Result Filtering
Content Annotation + Added value (shared online tags and categories)

I hope this brought something new to your plate. Thanx for stopping by,

Salam

XHTML Workshop

Ahmad — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:15:00 -0800

I would like to apologize if during this week I won't be following up through this blog and/or my account on twitter because of a workshop I have been asked to conduct for the coming 5 days in Aleppo University.

For those of you in Aleppo with an interest in wasting two hours a day this week, check us out at Aleppo University in the College of Information Technology Engineering - Al-Khawarizmi Hall#5 at these times (Presentations will be uploaded following each session - Click on Topic Title to download):

Date	Time	Topic
Sun 1 Feb	2:30 - 4:30	XHTML and The World Wide Web
Mon 2 Feb	2:30 - 4:30	Well Formatted Documents in XHTML
Tue 3 Feb	2:30 - 4:30	Advanced Markup Concepts
Wed 4 Feb	2:30 - 4:30	Adding Style to Your Documents
Thu 5 Feb	2:30 - 4:30	Putting it All Together

For a couple of laughs and possibly a fresh perspective of something you might already know, drop by, I might even add you to my blogroll

Some extra resources:

Web
- http://www.uie.com/ : User Interface Engineering
- http://molly.com : Well-known Web standards advocate
- http://w3c.org : World Wide Web Consortium
- http://vancouver-webpages.com/META/metatags.detail.html : Information on Meta tags
- http://www.webmarketingnow.com/ : Using the web for marketing
- http://webpageworkshop.co.uk/main/language_codes : Language codes
- http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/ : Official list of MIME Types

Semantic Markup
- http://structuredblogging.org/ : Structured blogging
- http://www.digital-web.com/articles/writing_semantic_markup/ : On the RSS Experience in Semantic Markup
- http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html#ltauthorgtSubelementOfLtitemgt : RSS 2.0 Specification

CSS
- http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ : Rules guiding CSS rules and validation / Validator
- Web Design Search Engine : Customized Search Engine

Thanx for stopping by,

Salam

A Rose for Gaza

Ahmad — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:19:00 -0800

I received an email recently regarding support in Aleppo for the victims of the Israeli massacre on Gaza, please read further...

Dear All,
Under the patronage of DR. Tamer Al-Hejjeh Mayor of Aleppo, JCI Aleppo invites you to join us in:Roses to GAZA event.
Where: At Pullman Al-Shahba hotel roundabout.
When: On Wednesday + Thursday 28+29.01.2009 from 11.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m.

There will be a stand spelling out Gaza with around 10000 roses inside…You are invited to buy each single rose for 100 S.P. Minimum.

Money which will be collected from this event will be sent to GAZA as a gift from JCI Aleppo.

Thanx for stopping by,
Salam

FoxyProxy - My New Favorite Firefox Add-on

Ahmad — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:05:00 -0800

An add-on every Internet Power User or Developer in the Middle East can't live without. FoxyProxy totally puts your proxy options on steroids, giving you an endless number of settings to use interchangeably according to circumstance, plus the ability to apply Regular Expressions to filter out, or whitelist certain domains, patterns, or even better, keywords that could appear in URLs. It also supports Tor (Vidalia) network users incase your wondering.

After installing the addon to your browser, you will be asked to restart, make sure you do, then check the right side of your lower status bar in your browser for the FoxyProxy Addon as shown below:

Double Click on the shown area in your browser to see the User Interface which should only contain a proxy named 'Default'. Click on the Add New Proxy Button, which will open a 3 tab window for you to fill in. Choose a descriptive name (e.g. if your using 'Hotspot Shield' or 'Ultrasurf' name it accordingly) in the first tab, Proxy Details are optional.

Now click on the tab to the right of General titled 'Proxy Details', choose Manual Proxy Configuration, and enter in the Host Name textfield, the settings from you proxy application (e.g if your using Ultrasurf enter 127.0.0.1), and in Port (also for Ultrasurf 9666).

Now here is where the actual magic happens, click on the third tab 'URL Patterns', then click 'Add New Pattern', you should get a window with two textfields in it, allowing to name a pattern, then enter a URL Pattern of your choice:

Shown in the image above is a URL Pattern for Google Code which is denied access in a number of Middle Eastern Countries by Google Inc., which can be overcome using this method.

Keep adding patterns using the wildcards and even regular expressions as you see fit, then enable the 'use proxies based on their pre-defined patterns and priorities' to surf the web using a proxy only when necessary.

I use FoxyProxy on a daily basis because it simply takes away the bandwidth loss of running everything I browse through the proxy whether it had to or not. Plus it saves time changing setting every 15 minutes.

I hope this was a clear tutorial for everyone, please request any further explanation using the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by,
Salam

'I AM LEGEND' vs. 'Seven Pounds'

Elias — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:19:00 -0800

[ Spoiler Warning ]

Yesterday, I finally got some time to watch the movie “Seven Pounds”. That was a really good movie, but I couldn’t help but notice many aspects that were very similar to “I am Legend”. I don’t know, maybe this sounds strange to lots of people, but here’s what I noticed:

Both movies use the same method to introduce flashbacks. Partial images that get longer and more complete as the movie nears the end. And most of the flashbacks are dreams where Will wakes up at the end in a totally different atmosphere
Will’s family dies in an accident in both movies
Will likes dogs and takes care of them in both movies.
If anybody noticed, the shot where he lies in the bathtub is very similar in both movies. Even the camera angle and the lighting are similar.
Will sacrifices himself in the end of the movie to save others that aren’t even related to him (or weren’t, cuz he gets to know them).

Conclusion: I give 'Seven Pounds' two thumbs up on both directing and storyline, but thought it was odd to see so much in common between to two.

Israel's New Online Weapon

Ahmad — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:55:00 -0800

It was an interesting day that in which I first learned of botnets, harnessing their power still remains a challenge to myself and the world alike. Yet ever since, I wondered what kind of advancements a technology like this could have on the World, and World Wide Web if ever it was sponsored by states, rather than rogue network overlords controlling massive online computing power to achieve less than honorable goals; Assuming of course those states had development in mind, not destruction.

On a different front, the Israeli massacre on Gaza is still at full throttle despite calls from the United Nations Security Council for an immediate cease fire defiantly continues committing crimes against humanity.

May 9th seemed to be a turning point in the Botnet history the day a country was attacked, paralyzing its governmental public services, in what seemed to be the first large scale online terrorist act, labeled by Wired.com: Web War I, which effect was minimized by a CERT team of experts.

Today however, we are amidst another Web War, this time steered not towards a government, but by one. The Israeli massacre on Gaza has taken gruesome shapes of gargantuan magnitude, from bombing governmental buildings, to the collective execution of a civilian population using white phosphorous, but it caught my attention the other day, that a new weapon has come into the claws of the offensive IDF, none other than, the Botnet.

Wired magazine reports that a botnet has come to exist openly on the web advertised by a group of hackers from a web site encouraging to 'Help Israel Win' by a number of actions, one of which would be installing an application to your PC that gives access to a number of resources on the 'Helpers' machine, adding a node to the grid of its computers, ultimately creating a Botnet. The Botnet which is controlled by an unknown group of people, who have in mind nothing less criminal than sending 'unfriendly' websites into the DDoS abyss. SANS Internet Storm Center has concluded that:

the owner can probably do whatever he wants with machines running this.
it is questionable if the binary will download something else.

In retaliation, groups of hackers apposing the Israeli offensive on Gaza have started an online movement targeting Pro Israeli websites having caused some losses reported during the past couple of weeks.

As the war rages on the ground, killing more and more civilians, the web has turned into a place of free revolt and media coverage, bringing to surface voices from those inside areas of conflict, where traditional reporting/media outlets can not.

I wonder whether or not actions like these, in the case of them being proven to have been committed by States as appose to terrorist groups, should be considered actions of aggression and/or terror, and consequently pursue them in courts of law? Or should retaliation take a form similar to that on the ground, where those concerned take matters into their own hands with an obvious lack of self restraint from the Israeli government and an international authority with jurisdiction of this magnitude.

Thanx for stopping by,

Salam

Now things are less Fuzzy

Ahmad — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:45:00 -0800

I have been tampering with this Blog for a while now, and since I have decided to get back into the actual Development aspect of Web Development, I have decided to make the blog more accessible, so I changed the font color to black, upped the font size and got rid of that left side bar, quite frankly it was just annoying me. Now I have more space to ramble on and on about nothing in particular that I might find worth the waste of time.

If anyone needs to see the disclaimer its still there, only to the far right corner of the blog. Where it should be.

I would love to hear what you think about it, the Design wasn't originally mine, but I think the tweeks and adjustments I have made have come along nicely. I can't wait to start blogging more frequently, just hope you find it in your hearts to read them, you might actually laugh at sth from to time :D.

Thanx for dropping by,

Salam

Gaza and New Media Resistance

Ahmad — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:43:00 -0800

As I skimmed through the internet these past 11 days, I have noticed unprecedented coverage of a conflict, as old in age as the countries at war (literally), the coverage took a new turn this time, it has gone from our traditional TV and Newspaper sources (aka Old/Legacy Media ) to a new and more dynamic form, the Social Networking platform.

The Palestinian Issue has been the main topic during almost every conflict and event in the modren history of the Middle East. It is for this reason, every young person and elder, has a story to tell, and an opinion on the Why's and How's it came to be, but one thing almost all Arabs will agree on, is that the Palestinian people, have been done an injustice that will only be corrected by an act of God.

The recent events that led to me writing this post have been Israel's latest crime against humanity, starting with the bombing of the Gaza Strip on the evening on the 27th of December 2008, leading up to the Ground Operation they launched on the evening of 3, Jan 2009 which continues till the time this post was written.

For those of you who haven't heard of Twitter it is a micro-blogging network, it essentially allows multiple users of the network to communicate with each other in 140 characters or less in a semi-real time fashion. This network has grown wildly over the past two years to engulf a whopping 1,000,000 users according to twitdir.com.

Over the past two years Twitter has made its footprint as a reliable news source from actual people, as appose to News Networks with political affiliations with this country, or that policy.

And with its growth comes the power of those who can make their voice reach the most followers, and the Arab Nation has tapped into that power which became obvious with the recent Israeli massacre in Gaza. As the bombs began to fall on Gaza, a whirlpool of Arab (and non Arab eg @gazanewsfrench)twitterers began to post tweets on the status of Gazans inside the Gaza Strip, users such as the following:

Arabic	English
@nazek88 a blogger/New Media reporter from Gaza	@AJGaza a service from Al Jazeera reporting live
@ammr Reporting news and the situation of the Gaza sphere	@Gazanews User or Users reporting a stream of news and articles
@intifada the official account of electronicintifada.com	@rahafharfoush Palestinian Blogger
@khaledalhouraniSyrian Blogger	@Ahmadization An arab living in Euro
@emudeer Also a twitterer with a clear stream	@okbah One of the impressive Arabic/English twitterers
@iBluesky Internet Cafe Admin with a thirst for truth	@mbaa Mohammed Basheer a New Media specialist

Some of these twitterers are living in the hell that is now Gaza Under Attack, others are simply people angry and sympathetic twitter users all over the Arab World and beyond.

The online war took a serious turn when Israeli contractors began using Twitter and Facebook as a PR tool for the Israeli Army as well.

I would like to make this article a place where others can find more news on the Gaza coverage online, you may also want to check out this FriendFeed Room for feeds from multiple sources amongst which are the aforementioned Twitter users. Also I list a number of resources I gathered from twittering during the crisis you may find informative on this topic below:

Gaza Talk - A gathering of News, Articles and New Media Resistance
Ikbis The Gaza Online Channel - For Videos
Mohammed Basheer - On Online New Media Resistance
Reporter and Humanitarian - Blog from Inside Gaza
a blogger from Rafah, Gaza Strip – Young Blogger showing some of the atrocities being committed against the people of Gaza
هناك غزة.. وهنا بيروت « لغزة .. ندون – Arab Blogger for Gaza Movement
صرخات غاضبة في لندن … وإقتحام لسفارة اسرائيل « لغزة .. ندون – Attacking Israeli Embassy in London (This makes me smile)
الجزيرة توك Aljazeera Talk - ليتك لم تطلب الرد يا منصور!! – (Interesting take on the Why/How Palestinian Authorities turned a blind eye to the initial Attack on Gaza)
Global Voices بالعربية » فضاء تويتر العالمي يتحدث عن غزّة – Twitter Coverage in Arabic on Gaza
الأخبار - عربي - أطفال غزة.. بأي ذنب قتلوا؟ - Al Jazeera article that breaks your heart on Children of Gaza
Think Progress » Bolton: Gaza Crisis Means We Should Attack Iran Now – This you have to see :D
The Conflict in Gaza: The Role (or lack thereof) of Mobile Phones | MobileActive.org – Mobile applications in the Era of New Media conflict Coverage
Poynter Online - E-Media Tidbits -
Lifes Little Boxes… » Blog Archive » New Media & The War on Gaza – Riyadd M. interesting take on the New Media wave and its effect on coverage
What Israel doesn't want you to see | Sabbah (Video)
Gaza News - FriendFeed – Room @ FriendFeed
Syrian Red Crescent Launches donation campaign for Gaza Palestinians – Red Crescent in Syria gathers contributions and sends to Gaza
Jillian York: The Anatomy of a Protest in 2009 – The impact of twitter on the International Front
Gaza: Oxfam supported health worker killed and ambulance destroyed in Israeli shelling | Oxfam International – one more reason to hate Israel
Global Voices Online » Jordan: The Gaza Connection – Arabs on online Gaza coverage
Online Wars: Surviving DDoS Attacks | ArabCrunch – New point of view, hackers turn Propaganda Towards Portals

As I write this article, I can't help but mention the Israeli Army's latest crime against humanity embodied in the bombing of two UN schools in Gaza. 40 Palestinians the majority of whom were women and children using the schools as shelters, assuming a building recognized by the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) would be safe from the Israeli tanks and bombs, they were deadly mistaken. The incident brought back memories from Amiriya Shelter back in 1991. I remember being took to pay my respects to the fallen martyrs of Amiriya, that day seeing the dark walls, the gaping hole in the enforced concrete roof was more than a jolt to the soul. I pray for the souls of those who left us in Gaza, and for those who they left behind, for them only patience, to survive the sorrow.

For those of you who would like to help the victims of Israeli aggression visit one of the following links:

ADC Develops Online Crisis Resource Center on Gaza Attacks www.adc.org
Donate to Palestine Red Crescent for #Gaza Victims http://tinyurl.com/7qxwfx
http://twitpic.com/zkcd - Map of #Gaza so people can see where #Israel is committing genocide
List of #Gaza massacre protests @ http://is.gd/dMT9 and http://is.gd/dTtc
Souktel is running a Palestinian "SMS Blood Bank" service for the Red Crescent in Gaza. http://snurl.com/9a31l
Please donate to the International Red Cross to aid the casualties of the current massacre in #Gaza. http://is.gd/egkk

Thanks for stopping by,

Salam