Change Layers Data Source in an MXD document

I have developed this tool only because our engineers needed it badly. It happens that its difficult to change the data source of a certain layer file to a new one. You have to do it one by one.


So this ESRI ArcMap tool help you do just that. Just register it and enjoy.

Download here

Email me should you have any suggestions/Comments/bugs.

Twitter Mass Unfollow Tool (Enhanced)

I have enhanced the Twitter Mass Unfollow tool to include the images of the users, now its even easier to sort and recognize the weird followings.



Enjoy.

Now this is Customer care

Authentication has become a serious issue nowadays with customer support. Companies use technology to SPAM their customers with ads and offers.

We feel customer care as more like an advertising firehose. The company doesn't really know us and frankly doesn't really care about us.

We miss the human interaction, handwritings and the spelling mistakes in emails.

Last month I was in Lebanon for work. I go almost everyday to have dinner in BOBs Dinning - Verdun, and I leave my comment after each meal with my email address. I remember once writing that the Grilled Chicken was cold when served to me.

In the 17 of May I received an email from the Guest relation officer of Bob's, addressed to me. This was the body.
"

Dear Mr. Hussein,

Thank you for the feedback that you mentioned in the Comment Card filled at Bob's-Verdun.



We want our guests to enjoy their dining experience, so your comment regarding the "Grilled chicken" platter is a serious concern for us.



Let us express our deepest apologies. You deserve only the best service and food quality, especially when you visit Bob's.



Therefore, I would like to ask of you to give us more details as to whether you informed the waiter about it, did he replace the item, … so that we can know exactly what needs to be improved.



If you do not mind disclosing your contact number, I would truly appreciate you emailing it to me so I will be able to better assist you in the future.


Waiting for your feedback,

Regards,
Rita Mehanna
Guest Relations Officer

"


This email is not sent by a computer, because my comment was carefully selected, my email has been fetched from the comment sheet, and the problem is carefully and specifically addressed in the email as you can see in the email. Computers can't do that.

I don't know about you, but I'm gonna continue eating in that restaurant.

The most ugly mashups in Web 2.0

Thought since I have added more tools to my website it worth to show it.

Hold the mouse on each tool to see its description

And yes you will never find an uglier design.

TMUT: Twtter Mass Unfollow Tool

When I started to use twitter I used to follow everyone and I ended up with more than 600 friends of which more than 300 are spam.

Unfortunately Twitter doesn't allow you to remove unwanted followers as a bulk, you have to remove them one by one which is a tedious process.

So I created TMUT

Twitter Mass Unfollow Tool






Enjoy.

Rettiwt V0.2: FireFox Extension for Twitter Web

I have noticed a lot of users use Twitter web when they are on their machines. It's better save much time and no need to download or install any application.

I thought I could inject few more features into this already available tool. Hence I created a FireFox extension.

Being new to FF extension development and a fan of rapid development, I added only few features (will add more later):

1. Classic Retweet with Editing (RT).

2. Automatically parse YouTube videos and embed them into the status itself.
So if one of your following post a link to a YouTube video, the extension automatically fetch that video and display the frame in the status itself. You don't have to do anything.

3. Add all your following into a listbox so you can easily select and reply to them.

4. #FollowFriday Button that appears only on fridays.

See the picture

Download the extension here











Installation
1. You should have FireFox installed.

2. Install the Extension, by clicking on the link above,
(Note it will ask you to OpenWith or Save, Choose OpenWith and Choose FireFox Application)

3. Close FireFox and open it again.

4. Visit Twitter.com and enjoy.


Shoot me any new features you would love to add at @hnasr

Unlike email, When you delete a sent a Twitter DM it got deleted from the recipent

Most of you might not know this (I didn't) so no harm in sharing.

We know that when you send an Email or a Message and you deleted the sent item still the recipient can read it.

However, unlike regular Email system and other Social networks, twitter in the contraray, keeps one copy of the message for performance issues. So when you send a DM or a tweet, a unique id get assigned to this tweet. The recipient only get notified that he got a tweet with this id. The rest is database relations.

Now when you delete the tweet the Id is gone, the database cascade deletion get triggered and delete all the occurrences of this id from all tables.

So when you sent a message you can still delete it before the other party read it, and of course the opposite is true, when you find your DMs are decreasing. Someone is deleting messages sent to you.

In Outlook there is a Re-Call option to do just that, but again the recipient should approve that.

Thanks to our smart Geek @Naseeeee for discovering this.

My First Video Log - BlackSwan

This is my first video Log, I talked here about the theory of BlackSwan.

Enjoy

A Proposal to Replace Geo-Database Replication

No it’s not Virus replication am referring to here, its Database replication. For those who don't know what Replication is, in sharing information, the process of keeping the duplicated sources of data in sync is called Replication.

Let’s say I have a team updating a database and another team who must work on the same database but unfortunately not in the office, they are on the field.

The concept is easy, make a copy the database on the field team handheld/mobile devices and let them update it, when they come back to the office we detect only the changes between the office database and the field database and import only those changes. The changes are usually called the delta records.

This process is called replication. This process has caused some problems previously

DBMSs allow you to replicate a part of the database or the entire database.


Back to the Roots
So Replication was invented by the database vendors for this main reason, keeping things insync. Why field users don't update the database directly by connecting to the Internet and save all this delta changes hassle. Performance is one reason, security and consistency are other reasons.

Lets Enhance this Architecture
Let’s go back to the roots and try to re-invent the wheel here. Why updating the office database from the field is slow? Because whatever Database software you are using, is designed in a way that allows high interactivity between the client and the server that work on LAN network perfectly. Thus it’s slow for limited Internet connection.

If we redesigned this software or at least created an interface for thin clients, depending on compressing heavy objects or sending named objects instead of heavy ones or even serializing the objects. All this summed would create a more convenient environment for field users and will also create a centralized up to date database.

VIVA Bahrain creates a Tipping Point for Nokia 1202

Just after the buzz over the launch of VIVA Bahrain starts to drop and their remarkable offer ( Free SMS/Calls to any VIVA number) coming to an end soon, U noticed lot of people start carrying a second (or third phone). 90% of the time this phone was Nokia 1202.

This small pattern reminded me of a book I read 2 months ago called the Tipping Point for Malcolm Gladwell. The tipping point is a point at which things get nuts without any apparent or enforced reason. For example sales goes up suddenly without any Marketing campaign, Crime level gets low without any increase in the police force, etc. Usually the reasons behind a tipping point share 2 properties, randomness and effectiveness.


So What happened?
When VIVA launched their offer, people start getting the free SIM card. Looking for a temporary cheap phone available, they all seem to stumble upon this Nokia 1202 with a cost of BD 9. They buy it, mobile shops noticing this particular phone sell the most, order even more creating an epidemic.

I know this barely affect Nokia profit, but it was a pattern worth noticing.

I really find the Tipping point is just another alias of the BlackSwan introduced by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. A theory I will write about in another post.