Hussein's Blog

Fine-Grained Vs Coarse-Grained Architecture

2012-05-09T10:32:00.001+03:00

I got a chance to go through Telvent Software Architecture today and I really liked it. If you take a look at both Telvent and ESRI Object Models you will notice the difference.

Here is the Telvent Object Model for all their Products, and this is ESRI's.

ESRI ArcObjects are always referred to as "Fine-grained" while Telvent use the term Coarse Grained. The difference? its just how much you chop of your design to smaller components.

The smaller your components, the finer it gets, you isolate your code, increase usability to the max. However because your components are so small now you will end up with ALOT of couplings. This will make your architecture very dependant on other objects and it will be very difficult to read as you can see in ESRI object model. Moreover, it is almost impossible to show a fine-grained architecture to upper management since it is too detailed.

Telvent's on the other hand does not go and break down their software components very far, instead they have a little bigger components, yes they cannot reuse all sub components but that makes the architecture decoupled and easily readable and can be presented to someone without architecture skills.

When Monkeys can't reach the Ripe Banana they say it's not sweet

2012-04-23T18:01:00.000+03:00

So do most people.

But they use different phrasing:

"Oh, that's how he did it. I thought It's more complicated. "

"Aha you used that feature, everyone can do that"

"No, my level of thinking and implementation is way beyond this"

"Instagram? I thought of that application before but didn't implement it"

"No my idea is way more sophisticated."

Yes you know those people, you might be one of them.

Cut this attitude and learn to listen to others. Watch movies you don't usually watch, read books you don't read, listen to people stories that don't interest you.

You will be surprised to learn something new!

By the way there is an arabic song to this proverb.

So Do I

2012-04-04T12:03:00.000+03:00

You know what makes you an average person?
It's not where you work, or how much you get or what you make or where do you live.

Its the "So Do I"

Karl Benz invented the Automobile, the whole world used his design to manufacture cars. It did change the World. Now we have more than 350 Automobile manufactures in the world all creating automobiles running on gas and driving on 4 wheels. Average.
Now it's easy to open an Automobile Manufacturing company. Why its easy? because you are a coward.

Someone created a product template and she said I'm going to use it, you said "So Do I, I'm going to use it as well because it works!" which lists you with the rest of the world as average.

You can go ahead and say "so do I". But you will not notice very much of a difference. If you want to be a purple cow, go Reinvent the wheel.

Slim Kicker Reinvented the Diet Wheel

2012-04-04T11:20:00.003+03:00

Our friend Christine Chew emailed me last year with a great idea, it was challenging and scary, no body have done it.

This was her email

Hi Hussein,

I bumped into your blog today and was wondering if I could get your opinion on a diet/fitness app I am working on right now.
Basically, the main problem with being fit and eating healthy is motivation and willpower. It's such an abstract goal that seems overwhelming. It seems the best way to counter this is to make it into smaller, winnable games.
So my app makes living healthy, eating healthy, and fitness into a RPG game, where users earn points, "level up', and earn badges as they accomplish their health goals. Everytime they add something healthy like whole greens, and veggies to their food log, they earn points. Everytime they complete a workout, they earn points. As they achieve more and more, they'll level up and unlock badges...
Of course, to appeal to people's need for achievements/progress, I'm also adding charts, and graphs to show their progress... I think people love that sorta stuff. The whole idea is to shift people's attitude towards healthy living as fun, and enjoyable. And there's gonna be a web version for those that don't own smartphones.
What's your opinion on this idea? Would you want to know when I'm done with it? ^_^
Thanks so much!

[11-8-2011]

She found the key to what drives people to continue their food diet and become healthy and decided to automate it. Each time you complete a goal, you unlock new achievements and share it on twitter or facebook, you can compare your trophies with others and see where you stand. I loved the inspiration feed where you can see what others are eating so you can continue your diet.

She sent me an email today saying that her work is complete and she announced the birth of http://slimkicker.com/

She even made an iPhone app that you can download here, the blackberry version is coming soon as well. I wish she roll one for Andriod as well.

Christine saw what other diet programs are doing, and she did exactly the opposite she went into different way, she reinvented the wheel.

OpenStreetMap View coming Soon to Arc2Google and MapsCompare

2012-03-20T18:05:00.000+03:00

I got a number of requests to embed the OpenStreetMap to both Arc2Google and MapsCompare tool.

Arc2Google is a tool that integrates ArcMap with Google Maps/Earth ,Yahoo maps and Bing Maps, I am now working on adding OpenStreetmap so you will have access to rich content from your ArcMap.

I got this suggestion from the folks at slashgeo as a comment to add open street to Maps Compare as both Bing and Yahoo have poor data and Google Earth has exactly same data as Google Maps.

ESRI ArcGIS Online Products

2012-03-20T12:32:00.000+03:00

No, arcgis.com is not the only ESRI product that allows you to share and interact with your GIS maps and data with other users.

Governments have shown their interests in the ArcGIS Online product but they had doubts, the major concern was the Security.

Where is my data stored?
Who have access?
What happen when I delete a map?
Is the Mapping Channel secured?

In a simple presentation I explain the difference between the four ArcGIS Online Products.

Download it, browse through it and I'm open for discussion here.

The Sun's Nuclear Fusion Explained

2012-03-19T16:42:00.002+03:00

Our Sun is an active giant gaseous star that produce energy enough to power up everything on earth. The source of this energy is one type Nuclear Reaction, the Nuclear Fusion.

I can go on and explain what happens on the Sun and how Nuclear Fusion scientifically works but it will be boring. So I decided to put a comic that explains it all .

Source.

Strip: How web browsers work?

2012-03-16T18:23:00.001+03:00

User asks the browser for a site
Browser exit the firewall after verification
Browser asks Domain Name Server for the IPAddress of the site
Browser follows the route to the IP Address
Browser finds the site host
Browser asks for the site html result
Browser returns back to the original address
Browser prints the result to the user.

Convert 2D to 3D using ESRI Model Builder

2012-03-13T09:55:00.000+03:00

2D to 3D

Want sexy 3D data but you have only 2D data?

Here is a proposal, using Model Builder and ESRI ArcScene you can create a beautiful 3D model even from Plain AutoCad Files.

Will publish a demo tool upon your request guys

KONY 2012

2012-03-11T10:45:00.000+03:00

More than 30,000 children are as an army. Just for one man's love of power.

The sad thing is no one knows about it.

Help the world know. Help stop Kony this year 2012.

They say I talk to machines

2012-03-05T15:00:00.004+03:00

Done by @nadanz

Ten posts you may have missed

2012-02-29T14:44:00.002+03:00

Is Windows a Virus?

2012-02-28T10:09:00.003+03:00

Its a joke I found here. The guy apparently has a point.

They even made a video about that.

An Oven connected to the Internet, controlled by Android

2012-02-23T00:24:00.001+03:00

Brought to you by Samsung, an Oven With WiFi & Android Baked In.
Imagine all sort of things you can do with your oven, now this can be controlled and monitored by your Android hand-held.
No need to go and check your cake status, this Oven sends you pictures of what you are cooking, updates you with the temperature, reports the calories and much more right while you are setting upstairs watching TV, directly to your phone.
Beauty.

@VIVA_BH 3rd Tipping Point Strike, This time for Android in #Bahrain

2012-02-22T10:37:00.003+03:00

In 2010, VIVA just entered the market. People wanted to test their new service so they rushed and bought the cheapest phone that time, Nokia 1202 (BD9) creating huge sales for this device.

In 2011, VIVA raised the bar with an iPhone4 offer that tipped the sales for the iPhone in Bahrain (and consequently creating more Apple Fans).

Now VIVA has done it again in 2012, but this time with Android. Its last offer is, get your a Galaxy Note, Galaxy SII or Galaxy Nexus for FREE and with HSPA and ready for this?, Unlimited Data package for just 30BD monthly for a year.

So geeks can now wonder anywhere with their laptop tethered to their Android hand-held devices and share the Internet love.

Although not everyone is happy with their service, I expect VIVA to bring an Android shower this year in Bahrain.

A while ago I wrote about how Batelco crushed Menatelecom with its When-able to-attack-you-must-seem-unable strategy. However, I think, Batelco should squeeze some marketing juice into its products in order to beat the Risk-Taker VIVA.

$199 Kindle Fire w/Cyanogen or $476 iPad2 w/Stay-Slave-ForeverOS

2012-02-20T14:57:00.003+03:00

Need a Tablet?

You can spend $476 on an iPad2 and become an Apple Whore.

OR

You can spend $400 Galaxy Tab 10.1 get robust Tab with beautiful ICS Android that actually allows you to run adobe flash.

Better?

You can buy a $199 Kindle Fire, remove that amazon crappy software and flash it with CyanogenMod 7 beauty.

Save 200$ and enjoy full android features.

Welcome to the Open Source World.

Arc2Google 10.1 featured in software informer

2012-02-10T15:21:00.001+03:00

Would like to share with you some good news.

Today I received an email from Software Informer saying that Arc2Google, a tool I developed back in 2009 that links ArcGIS desktop to Google Maps and Earth also yahoo and bing maps, has been featured in their website.

Software informer is one of the top 500 visited websites on the Internet.

Here is the link to software informer.

Minority Reports Screen in Windows 8?

2012-01-28T19:12:00.001+03:00

If you have watched the Minority Reports movie you must have seen how Tom Cruise was moving items around with his hands and controlling a big screen of gadgets smoothly.

Next year this might actually be possible as Microsoft Kinect Could Make Its Way to Laptops. If Laptops have a built-in Kinect, it could recognize hand gestures and with few changes on the new Windows 8 users could manipulate their files and directories with gestures.

Pretty cool right? Although I'm sure Microsoft will fuck this up as well.

Four reasons that gets us upset (@alialmahdi)

2012-01-24T13:50:00.001+03:00

With or without our intentions we get upset and most of the time we dont know why.
Ali Compiles four factors that causes the frustration. Worth 5 minutes of your time.

A phone that runs on AA battery

2012-01-19T20:36:00.001+03:00

You know you want one!

We all carry multiple SIM cards.
‘Spare One’ Phone that Runs On One AA Battery is perfect to load your secondary numbers. A phone that just calls. You wont be worrying about charging it.

Run out of battery? No problem, Just stop at the nearest store and grap an AA one.

What #SOPA will do to you

2012-01-18T11:27:00.003+03:00

When you tweet a photo of your kid with Disney logo in the background. That's a $500 fine.
When you link your blog post to a Skyirm walk-through YouTube video that accidentally shows the player's Charles Jourdan watch or his girl friend's Louis Vuitton bag. That's a $1000 * (#seconds the watch was visible in the video) + $1200 * (#seconds the bag was visible in the video) Fine.
Seeding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) from a piratebay tracking server. God forbids that's a year in jail.
Shooting a video of your kid taking his first poop in the bathroom while Nicole Scherzinger - Right There is playing in the background. Your kid will be old enough to clean your poop in prison.
You could get 5 years for uploading a Michael Jackson song. One year more than the doctor who killed him.
If a student posts a copyrighted work to a forum, the whole site could be taken down

I think the Illuminati is taking over the world very soon. Is the 2012 the end? [If I didn't reply to your comments I'm probably in jail for linking to Wikipedia]

Enable hotspot on iPhone (@mrbhr)

2012-01-17T20:28:00.001+03:00

Our friend @mrbhr wrote a nice article about How to enable Personal Hotspot on iPhone?
+1 for iPhone this feature was recently added on 4.3

Imagination Pooling

2012-01-14T15:25:00.001+03:00

We imagine several sorts of things all the time. Some of you decide to share it to their close friends. Others keep it to themselves scared people will steal and publish their ideas as their own. However, very rare decide to publicly share their imaginations. I'm here to talk about this last segment.

Here is the fun part. Each one of us was born with limited unique set of imagination span. The more we learn new things the more our imagination span increases. Until it reaches a level where you think you know everything and here is where you stop learning. Your imagination freezes at its size. You refuse to read books that don't interest you or watch movies that do not fit your standards or listen to other type of music or play video games that are not your style. Here is when the imagination gives you the delusion that you know "enough" and you don't need to know about other aspects in life, you may even call them stupid, or silly stuff. This will eventually kill potential creativity.

Let's go back to point one. We were born with unique imaginations. We compile our imagination into stories and we pour these stories into a medium. This medium can be a book or a movie or a play or a picture or even a video game. When you watch this movie or listen to this song or see this picture you acquire more imagination automatically. Even though you might think the movie is silly or that song is stupid.

When we watch movies we tap into other people imagination pool and build on it creating further imaginations. I refer to this as imagination pooling.

The point I want to make in this post is that pooling the imagination can broaden your thoughts spectrum thus generating even rich ideas. You cannot do this if you stick to talking to your close friends or listening to stuff you already know about or reading books on which you know the title or watch movies that you only like. That was me 2 years ago, until I met my wife my whole thoughts and imaginations changed. I feel myself as if my imagination experienced totally different dimension and I keep coming with even more ideas every day. She is in the fashion industry while I'm in the IT field. Totally different yet my imagination was doubled since the day i met her.

Never under-estimate the power of learning and never think your knowledge is above all. Learn to share and acquire new things.

Are you an Apple Hostage?

2012-01-05T14:00:00.000+03:00

I don't know if you are familiar with the Stockholm syndrome. In 1973 a bank in Stockholm got robbed and the bank employees were kept hostages for 6 days. The weird thing is that the hostages became emotionally attached to their captors and were defending them even after they were released. Since then, this was referred to as the Stockholm syndrome.

Apple is spending millions to keep their users clipped to its products. Take a look at this:

You can't download OTA MP3 and save it to the device, it should be from ITunes.
You can download apps only from the Apple Store.
If you are Bahraini, screw you, you have only the Bahrain or Saudi Apple Store which contains either sex stories apps or Islamic calenders. No Angry birds.
You can't trick apple to change your Store to US to get more stuff. You have to have a credit card, even if you do have one, is not smooth to install.
You can't replace the battery or have a backup one use this one only.
No you can only charge iPhone with this charger, what? oh no, no microUSB.
Flash? Who needs it?
You can only buy applications, music from ITunes not from another site.
You cannot test your app without a license, buy a developer license and install your app.
Last but not least expensive products that locks you down.

Despite that the guys from iPhone Dev Team spend so much time to hack the OS and unlock it. Every user is waiting for this jailbreak yet they don't confess. Now it is nice that IOS users have some degree of freedom after this latest jailbreak, but this should not be necessary. "Apple really needs to trust their users with their own devices." -- grant

That is what's happening between Apple and their users. What really baffles me isn't Apple, but Apple users! It is like they are saying "My kidnapper didn't beat me every night and sometimes I even got cake."

Are you an Apple hostage? I'm sure not.

An idea: Get rid of the shopping queue

2012-01-03T19:22:00.001+03:00

Sometimes shopping with wify can keep the brain juices flowing.

Create a microscopic unique RFID tags and attach them to products. So that no two tags in the world are the same.

Customers now select their products.( clothes etc.) And they simply place their cart in a big scanner( just like the ones at airport) the scanner now scans all item at once using the radio and deletes them from the system.

So with just one scan all your items are scanned and the price is calculated. You pay with your card and that's it.

No cashier. No Queue.