From isreal21c.org (click for full article)

Take a dive off the coast of Eilat these days and you're liable to find yourself swimming around a huge yellow concrete and wire construction that stretches four yards up from the seabed, is four yards wide, and is full of holes. No, this isn't some strange new structure left behind by an alien race, or cargo dropped from a sinking container shop, this is the first artificial coral reef in the Red Sea.

The reef, which was developed by the Israel Nature Parks Authority and a team of academics from the National Center for Mariculture at the Eilat campus of Ben Gurion University, the Inter-University Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, the Hebrew University, and the Marine Science Station in Aqaba, is a unique new approach to conservation in the Red Sea and part of a joint co-operative project between Israel and Jordan.

"The number of visitors is large and the size of the reefs is limited and too small," explains Dr. Nadav Shashar, the supervisor of the research project. "Because of the increase in the number of visitors, the coral reefs are unable to overcome the damage caused and are beginning to die out. If we don't act quickly, it's only a question of time before the excellent breeding conditions in the north bay become barren. Many bodies are aware of the problem and are seeking a way to solve it."

The openings of the reef have bars to prevent divers and swimmers from entering into unsafe areas, and to preserve the reef.

In six months another artificial reef is to be added on the Jordanian side of the Red Sea, it will be followed by four more - one in Eilat and three more in Jordan. Improvements and modifications are planned for the next reefs. "We are trying to improve all the time," says Shashar.

"Within a year we will estimate whether the whole thing is a success or not, and we will go on from there," says Shashar. "If all goes well then we will go to places where reefs used to be and actually build major large scale artificial reefs there. We are trying to design a new environment. All over the world reefs are being damaged and broken down, we are trying to add surface area. So far it looks like a great success. The fish are coming, and so are the people."

Labels: Jordan, Technology

From ScienceDaily.com:

IRBID, Jordan, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Jordanian scientists have discovered potato chip flavoring can increase the longevity of concrete.

Awni Al-Otoom of the Jordan University of Science and Technology found sodium acetate -- the ingredient that helps give salt and vinegar-flavored potato chips a tangy snap -- is the key to a new waterproof coating for concrete.

Al-Otoom and colleagues note concrete -- the world's most widely used structural material -- is so porous that water soaks in, corroding steel reinforcing bars and meshes that strengthen concrete roads and buildings. That, in turn, causes cracks as water expands and contracts during freeze-thaw cycles.

But the scientists discovered sodium acetate easily seeps into concrete and swells when exposed to water, blocking entry of additional moisture. Under dry conditions, the crystals shrink to their original size and allow moisture to evaporate.

The net result is "a significant reduction in water permeability (that) can be expected to increase the service life of the concrete," the scientists said.

The study is detailed in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

Labels: Fun, JUST, Technology

The guys of the Computer Center have made a good job, after the more-than-six-months beta test, the new website of JUST has been officially launched : A cutting edge look, better performance and more functionality!

If you are a JUST student and you enter www.just.edu.jo on your web browser you will get a surprise, the old ugly site of Jordan University of Science and Technology changed look definitely, it has been replaced by a new site with a better choice of colors, styles and an enhanced functionality. The user-friendly interface provides two menus, the one on the top with services for students, alumni and visitors, and the right one for academic services, this one changes as you visit different sections of the site.

Based on ASP.NET technology, with a relevant utilization of AJAX features, the new site offers some newer technologies and, for sure, a more innovative design compared with the previous site, however there are a few things I think the Computer Center should work on:

I promise that I'll carry these points to the Computer Center (I'm in good relations with them), and if anyone has a suggestion leave a comment :)

Labels: JUST, Technology

My mom always reproaches me for staying more than three hours in front of PC and she scold me if I'm not at more than two meters from TV. Well, now she can be happy to read this post...

A recent article says that playing action video games for a few hours will improve the vision by nearly 20%. The study was published by Dr. Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences - University of Rochester, he had tested with a graduate student a large number of college students who had not played any video game in the last year, after that these students were given an optical test (similar to those of any eye clinic) and were divided int two groups: action-game players, those who had played shoot-'em-up action games for an hour a day, and the other group that played less visual complex games.

After this study the students were tested and it was found that those who played the action game had better results. Bavelier said that "Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information" and he added that this findings could help patients with several types of visual defects. [Source]

Today I've found another site on the net, it contains some interesting eye-miths including the silly sayings that "eating carrots can improve vision" or "reading in the dark will damage your eyes", however it finally proved that sitting too close to the TV is not bad for eyes! The site says that:

Modern TVs do not emit harmful radiation, so eye damage due to radiation is also not an issue. As with sitting too close to the television, you may get a headache from reading in the dark, but it will not weaken your sight.

Regarding computers, a lot of sites talk about the Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), about.com has two pages dedicated to the syndrome, an article of Cathy Wong describes CVS as a common problem (this syndrome is about 40 times more common than carpal tunnel syndrome, another health condition affecting computer users). The other article shows possible links between computer use and Glaucoma, however it clearly says that there's no strong proof of that.

Labels: Technology, What's on the web

On June 10 and July 7, 2003 NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers were launched toward Mars. Primary scientific goals of the mission were to search different types of rocks and soils, in addition to discover the sites affected by liquid water in the past. Several photos of the red planet were taken as the robots are supplied with several cameras, one capable of taking images of the surface and sky of Mars and other microscopic cameras to zoom rock and soil targets.

In 2007, after three years from Spirit and Opportunity landing (the twin rovers), NASA announced a contest to choose the best photos of Mars, the voting began on January 3, and ended on January 24, and these are the winners (presented in order):

	NUMBER ONE Sunset The sun sinks beneath the rim of Gusev Crater on May 19, 2005.
	NUMBER TWO Dazzling Dunes As Opportunity crept to the bottom of Endurance Crater, the rover investigated dune crests in false-color, seeing a "blue" tint from hematite-containing spherules ("blueberries") that accumulate on flat surfaces.
	NUMBER THREE Cape Verde Scientists named this dramatic cliff "Cape Verde" and all features at Victoria Crater in honor of locations on Earth that Magellan explored in the 1500s.
	NUMBER FOUR Blueberries on Mars When some scientists first saw these strange beads of hematite, the spheres seemed like "blueberries" embedded in a "muffin" of martian soil.
	NUMBER FIVE Wheel Tracks Hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, a pair of wheel tracks chronicles the rover's journey across a rocky, sandy, rippled slope above a broad Martian plain.

(Photos' descriptions from nasa.gov)

Click if you want to see the other photos or the results of Saturn's photo contest.

Labels: Art, Technology

After being sure that did not copy features of Mac OS X, the company of uncle Bill showed us how is simple to steal an idea (for example Apple's iPod) and to promote it with insignificant ads and a no-more-than attractive package.

The guys of never worked in a scientific step-by-step approach (their operating system confirms this), but in the act of (re-)designing the iPod package they have accomplished sequentially five golden steps, they're (FOB):

• Make sure it's on brand	• FOB stands for: Full of Bullets	• Stars and Snipes
• Spines and Sys Reqs	• Back of Box	• Final Review

It's known that Micro$oft, pardon... , is only good at making commercials and media campaigns, and I don't think this time things have changed, the fact the company admitted it has made the video lets it much nearer to any other advertising campaign than a proof of its sense of humor.

Labels: Technology

A little surfing on the net shows us exhilarant spying techniques

It all started with Echelon, the secretive network capable of capturing tons of security, economic, political and personal information from radio waves, satellite communications, phone calls and emails. Echelon is administered by United States, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, only one of these countries has total access on stolen data and has full executive powers, and certainly it is New Zealand :)

Several sites on the web discuss Echelon, especially in matter of legality and privacy; one is the Echelon Watch, whenever Privacy International Organization offers a detailed report on privacy threads.

Along with Echelon we have Carnivore and Magic Lantern, nice names for two logging tools of the FBI, the first is used to archive all the emails you receive or send, and the second is a keystroke logging tool, this means that every information you type on your keyboard is recorded by FBI. howstuffwork.com has a detailed article on how Carnivore worked… we say 'worked' because Carnivore officially has been shut down. (To be more precise, FBI has now a more potent tool for collecting email messages it's called DCS1000 or data collection system).

US Government spies on others, but it has been spied on too… 140 Israelis have been arrested until now in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected espionage. informationclearinghouse has an investigation conducted by C.Cameron on Israelis that have gathered intelligence information on 9/11 attacks in advance, it's worth a visit.

Canada is also spying on Americans, the 007 way… A recent AP article started this way: Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?

In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside. The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances [Source].

This happened months after British diplomats in Moscow were accused of spying using electronic equipment hidden inside a fake rock in a park. If you want to know how a rock can 'spy' read this BBC article.

Labels: Technology, What's on the web

It's remarkable how many things have been discovered casually. This item almost certainly it's been invented by chance, but it will revolutionize the sport apparel industry.
The research funded by US Air Force was initially intended to find a technologic manner for protecting soldiers from biological weapons; however scientists found a way to keep underwear clean for several weeks.

The US Military spent for the production of the fabric more than $20 Millions, and it has already been used to create t-shirts and underwear that remain hygienic either if they are worn for weeks.

A protective coating is created on the fibers of the material by first attaching nanoparticles to clothing fibers with the use of microwaves and then, chemical materials that keep away water and bacteria are bound to the nanoparticles.

To read the article, click here.

Labels: Technology

Kill Bill Edition Settings of standard edition A User screenshot

Name: Slax OS Family: Linux Developer: Tomas Matejicek Licence: GPL This is the best tiny distribution I've ever found for new Linux users; it's easy to use with a potent desktop environment (KDE 3.5) and with Linux kernel 2.6 that offers a good support of different hardware (USB, wifi…etc). Based on the Slackware distribution, Slax is can be run from a small minidisk (or even from a bootable USB); its standard version has nearly a 190 MB size, this let me make a copy of it I always have in my pocket when I go to university :) Slax does not pretend so much in matter of requirements, to run the Xwindow window manager (with KDE) you will need 144 MB of RAM memory, your processor will be good for sure (minimal i486 Pentium or AMD needed). Slax comes in different editions: Standard, KillBill (that I have), Server and Popcorn. KillBill contains qemu and wine, Popcorn is only 128 MB (good if your flash is of this size). Another characteristic of Slax is its modularity, modules for Slax can be easily added and you can find thousands of them on the web. Official Site of Slax is here

Labels: OS, Technology

New search engine that depends on human judgment rather than Google computer-based algorithms

Jimmy Wales is the man behind Wikipedia, the multilingual free encyclopedia written collaboratively by millions of people around the world. The encyclopedia is totally online and its site is a wiki, this means that anyone is allowed to edit or add articles, no matter how correct or accurate they are. This led Wikipedia to a sort of controversial status, with many ask the same repeated question: how much are these articles reliable? On the other side, there are people who adore it… (Me for example) why not since it's the incarnation of all open source philosophies?

Ok, now take this idea: only what the people say and what people want matter… put it in practice for a search engine, and you will get Wikiasari; the wiki alternative to Google.

Amazon.com and other Silicon Valley financiers had already invested millions of dollars in the Wikiasari, they also know that a failure for a similar project is plausible, and to compete with Google (90% of searches online are made with it) the only key of success will be public collaboration and Wales' courage (or maybe madness).

Good Luck! (You need it)

For more info, visit this page: http://search.wikia.com/

Labels: Technology

Opening multiple windows... Take a look at windows' back Changing the desktop...

Yesterday, Dr. Basel Mahafzah, our Computer Architecture instructor showed us a short video of a 3D operating system (or more technically, a desktop environment for MS Windows and SunOs), and told us it was developed by a group of students for the OS class in their university. The project's name is Project Looking Glass, it was developed almost in Java and it's large supported by Sun Microsystems, the whole code is open source with a GNU General Public License (GPL) license. After the short installation, you'll be able to move and rotate windows as if they were sheets of paper (or more precisely, as if they're made of glass), you can even write on the back of any window! The fact is: why students from Techno do not develop such things? They never thought of taking up similar projects…and this is in some way strange, since we have –technically- the needed abilities and knowledge…we need only will! One of major things I hate in my university is the fixation of students and instructors to only one thing: marks, so here it's an endless action-reaction between poor students, which study to get decent marks, and between psychopathic (!) instructors trying to make exams even more difficult. We have as result large numbers of students who have very little time for, or don't wish to carry up, something out of the ordinary. In this way, we have killed any form of creativity… To download the video, click here. To download the project, visit this page. (PS: Me and my friend Nasser have thought of making something similar, perhaps for graduation project… and don't steal our idea!)

Labels: JUST, OS, Personal, Technology

Less than a year ago, I was one of participants in the Microsoft Academic Day (MAD), a kind of meeting induced by Microsoft, which aims to present its products to the students of universities and to who begins to have a little knowledge in software development.
I must say that MAD was quite well-organized, it was held in a hall of PSUT, and was partially ordered by .net student clubs, which regroup a tiny number of our university students. I do not have anything against Microsoft (that's the contrary of what a lot of people think), but, first of all, I was somehow shocked by the aggressive responses of lecturers, in particular when some students tried to have an argument with them. I remember that one of Techno, responsible in .net club, denied rightly what a lecturer said; that an entire web site can be build up using Microsoft technologies in less than 15 minutes. The student told him it was practically impossible, and said that pages with ASP.NET components are not displayed correctly on Firefox browser. The lecturer answered by a number of insults to Firefox, Mozilla and non-IE browsers, and he laid blame on them for being non-standard (?). (A Yarmouk guy wearing a Firefox T-shirt was sitting first in line nearby Microsoft representatives; I don't think he was in agreement with him).
The presentation of Windows Vista was apparently exciting, (naturally, if you forget security threats… Microsoft personnel told us that security is a 'server-only' stuff). The look is extremely nice, and all the elements are well-designed, the solitaire icon is very cute (wow!), and the animation caused by pressing (ALT+TAB) moves between windows in an attractive fashion, -but I made a bet with a friend that the computer would have crashed :), however I admit the appearance of MAC OS X is better.
One point: Microsoft staff said the minimal requirements for Windows Vista are 1GB RAM and some 256 VGA card…!
The presentation of IE7 was to show a real life application of multiple forms of plagiarism; IE7 browser tags and RSS feeds were taken evidently from Firefox…
Another funny section was that of DirectX, with a student from BAU showing us his 3D project of Petra, very appreciated by Mr. Gates in his visit to Jordan.
Speakers from students asked why use DirectX since they find OpenGL better, the answers were not so convincing (and they nearly made a mockery of them); the same was when they spoke about PHP, Java, MySQL and other open source products, so nothing new… this is typical of Microsoft.

Labels: Personal, Technology