Ubuntu 8.1 v/s Windows XP and Vista

After 2 months unregular use, here are my impressions of Ubuntu v/s Windows XP and Vista

1- Installation process:
XP: 4/5
Vista: 4/5
Ubuntu: 2/5 (see previous post)

2- Graphic layout:
XP: 3/5
Vista: 4/5
Ubuntu: 4/5 (very nice effects + grate double screen system)

3- OS stability:
XP: 4/5
Vista: 2/5
Ubuntu: 5/5

4- Security:
XP: 3/5
Vista: 3/5
Ubuntu: 5/5

5- Confort of use:
XP: 4/5
Vista: 4/5
Ubuntu: 3/5

6- Available Programs:
XP: 5/5
Vista: 5/5
Ubuntu: 3/5

7- System requirements:
XP: 4/5
Vista: 2/5
Ubuntu: 4/5

8- Compatibility:
XP: 4/5
Vista: 3/5
Ubuntu: 2/5

9- Computer smills required:
XP: 4/5
Vista: 4/5
Ubuntu: 2/5

10- Price:
XP: 3/5
Vista: 2/5
Ubuntu: 5/5

Overall:
XP: 38/50
Vista: 33/50
Ubuntu: 35/50

Comments:
The grading takes into account 20 years experience in working on Windows OS computers but no experience in programming.
I was very surprised that Ubuntu is now very close to Windows in terms of layouts, confort of use, ergonomy and much better in terms of stability and security.
Nevertheless, the are less programs available for Ubuntu and they are less complete than Windows (Opensource Office v/s MS Office, video codecs,...). BUT, it's all for free!!!!
So if you have an old computer to revive, I would strongly advise you to do a double installation XP and Ubuntu on the old one, and Vista on the new one, if already included in the price. If Vista is not included in the price of the new computer, or you can lower the price for the computer with XP, forget about Vista. It's the worst OS I worked on since DOS 4.0 in terms of stability.

RESTAURANT IN MADRID: Sushi Olé

Where: SUSHI Olé, Calle Francisco Silvela, 71 Madrid (I Think there are other ones in Madrid)

Food: 4/5
Best Sushi I had in Madrid, with fusion added style.
Place: 4/5
Nice modern decor and interior design. Very nice general atmosphere, which changes from all the Sushi classical restaurants ... run by Chinese.
Service: 4/5
Nice and efficient service.
Price: 3/5
Count around 30 EUR, easily. The first time you'll feel it's pretty expensive for a restaurant in Madrid. But every time you go, they give you (significant) discount coupons to be used during week day. There it will be much more affordable!
Overall Grade: 4/5
The place is nice, the food is good, the service is good. Until now, my favourite sushi place in Madrid.

Weeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaa!

That's it, tomorrow final exam. Ouf, I was starting to get really tired...
But I really enjoyed this week. Not that I'm mazochiste, but I like the atmosphere at IE, even during exams period.
Love this year!

Now, let's get back to work and post some new tested restaurants!
Cheers
Joe

May Chidiac resigning video - Impressive

Check out the link to see the resignation speech of May Chidiac from LBC.

High emotions!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tSbClrBeIY

casadellibro.com

Casadellibro.com
1. What would be your decision? Stick to the previously developed UNIX platform, or switch to the new Microsoft one? Please feel free to make any rational assumptions you might need in order to reach a decision.

Firstly, we need to know if Planeta is willing to continue its web adventure or not. If it was only for the sake of maintaining the share price up, or it really believed that the net was a real channel of distribution with high future growth or not. Since they started selling since 1995 on the net, it’s probable that they will pursue the adventure.

Secondly, re-draw the sales forecasts neither going to heaven no going to hell => remaining on earth!
Once reasonable forecasts done, calculate the “life” expectancy of Microsoft Platform. If it’s more than 2 years, forget about the Unix one. 2 years in the world of computers is a decade in another sector, and many new solutions will come up by than.

Forget about the development costs already made until now on the Unix platform. This is sunk cost. We should only look for the future, taking into account the investments to be done starting from now until the life expectancy of the platform + operating costs.

2. Which are the most relevant criteria for you to make the decision? Just name each criterion, and explain it very briefly.

To make that decision we need to know what’s the gap in terms of quality, reliability,
performance and convenience between the 2 platforms.
Nevertheless, whatever platform chosen, some basics should be insured:
1- Safety of payments: otherwise this could be terrible for casadellibro.
2- Reliability of the system: the platform is the company’s factory. It goes down often,
everything stops.
3- Transparent for the customer: the output seen from a customer point of view should be at
least at the industry standard.

RESTAURANTS IN MADRID: MESTIZO

Where: MESTIZO, Calle Recoletos, 13 28001 Madrid (there's another one in London)

Phone: 915756453

Food: 4/5
As often when I go for the first time to a restaurant, and when it's available, I tried the degustation menu (for 2). Very nice variety of meat, chicken and vegetables to eat with fagitas.

Place: 4/5

Nice decor and interior design, on different levels. Nice bar with nice collection of different sorts of Tequilas.

Service: 3/5

Acceptable. No huge mistakes (except in preparing the bill...) nor specific satisfaction.

Price: 3/5

Around 30 EUR including a bottle of wine and a Margarita. It could be 4/5 maybe if we had only beer (to compare with other restaurants).

Overall Grade: 4/5

The place is nice, the food is good, a bit expensive and service is acceptable. I'll come back.

RESTAURANTS IN MADRID: SIAM

Where:
SIAM, Calle San Bernardino, 6 28015 Madrid (Metro Plaza Espana). Book first otherwise you will not find any places. Phone: 915598315

Food: 4/5
Very good and tasty food. For my first visit, no knowing well Thaï cuisine, I tried the degustation menu (for 2). A variety of tasty dishes: sweet and sour, spicy, vegetarian, meat, chicken,...
Other friends tried some spicy vegetarian plates. They were delighted.

Place: 3/5
The restaurant is medium size (2 stores), fairly well decorated.

Service: 4/5
Nice and efficient. Nothing more to add.

Price: 4/5
Around 25 EUR/pers. including 2 or 3 drinks.

Overall Grade: 4/5
I was very happy to try this restaurant and discover Thaï cuisine. I will definitely come back.

RESTAURANTS IN MADRID: LATERAL

Where: There are 4 LATERAL restaurants in Madrid, I tried 2 of them: Calle Velazqez 57, and Plaza Santa Ana.

Food: 5/5
Almost the best Tapas I had in Madrid at a reasonable price. The plates are tasty, with a slice of fusion and very nice mixtures. I particularly enjoy the Jamon, Tomato, Mozarella salad.
Place: 3/5 (santa ana) 4/5 (Velazqez)
Plaza Santa Ana restaurant looks more like a Cantine place, whereas the ambiance of Velazqez is much more trendy.
Service: 1/5
Yes, I know, I'm a bit severe here, but I just can't stand it waiting for an hour to get a table, with no possibility to book in advance. Popularity is the price of success, when it's dealt this way. Just because of that, I'm searching for a new place to enjoy Tapas.
Price: 4/5
Below 20 EUR including 2 or 3 drinks. Considering the food quality served.

Overall Grade: 3/5, without the horrible welcome and waiting time, it would normaly be a 4/5.

RESTAURANTS IN MADRID: Mosaiq

Here's a new one: Mosaiq, restaurant and Chicha Bar (a non smoking piso is available)

Wine & Dine Group positionned it as Lebanese and Moroccan, but it's more moroccan than Lebanese. Nevertheless, I decided to label it as Lebanese considering that many dishes proposed are from the Lebanese Mezzes, done the Moroccan way. The cook comes from Morocco.

Where: Mosaiq, Calle Caracas 21.

.Food: 3/5

If you're going there to have Lebanese food you are used to, you'll be disappointed. The dishes are called the same, but don't taste the same. Nevertheless, it's still good. I personally prefered the Moroccan plates served, who are good.

Place: 5/5

It's a big 3 stories restaurant, with one non smoking floor. The Decor is beautiful and the restaurant clean. In the lower floor there is a great place for Narguilé amateurs.

Service: 3/5

Classical service. Could have been better considering that the restaurant was almost empty.

Price: 4/5 (from Sunday to Thursday), 2/5 on Week Ends

The menu for 22 EUR (without drinks) is very good, but is not proposed on Week Ends. If you want to go there, better choose a week day

Overall Grade: 4/5, I'll definitely try their brunch some WE. (24 EUR)

Financial Times Global MBA Ranking: IE Business School N°6 worldwide!

IE Business School MBA is pursuing its way to the TOP. Ranked N°6 in the 2009 Financial Times Global MBA, N°1 European Global MBA,...
Difference, Innovation, Audace, social responsibility finally pays.
Cheers
Joe

http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings

U've heard of "The Palm" & "The World" now its time for "The Cedar"

U've heard of "The Palm" & "The World" now its time for "The Cedar"

http://www.cedarsisland.com/
مشروع جزيرة إصطناعية على شكل أرزة لبنان قبالة الشاطىء اللبناني24 كانون الثاني 2009أعلنت شركة "نور الدولية القابضة" ومقرها بيروت عزمها طرح تطوير مشروع "جزيرة أرزة لبنان" قبالة الشاطىء اللبناني على المراجع الرسمية اللبنانية لأخذ الموافقات. وكشفت الشركة النقاب عن أن المشروع عبارة عن جزيرة اصطناعية في البحر على شكل رمز لبنان الوطني وسوف تشكل أكبر شجرة إصطناعية عرفها التاريخ. وسوف تضم الجزيرة مجمعات سكنية وتجارية وسياحية وترفيهية وخدماتية تتميز بقدر كبير من الفخامة المنسجمة مع أسلوب الحياة العصرية بالإضافة إلى توافر أفضل وسائل الراحة والإستجمام . ومن المتوقع أن يستغرق إنجاز المشروع وفقاً لصالح فترة 3 إلى 4 سنوات بعد الحصول على المراسيم والتراخيص الخاصة من الجهات اللبنانية المختصة .

-- Covering an area of 7, 5 squared kilometers in the touristic area of Damour, Lebanon, the Cedar Island lends itself as a luxurious residential, commercial, and touristic project. In a! ddition to its gentle location on the Mediterranean Sea, Damour is situated 18 Km from Hariri International Airport south of Beirut. Its geographical location along the Lebanese cost allows it to play a vital role in attracting tourists and VIP residents looking for an exotic lifestyle or escaping from the city
http://www.cedarsisland.com/

Tesco Case

TESCO CASE: What do you think is the IT-generated competitive advantage at Tesco:

Innovative:
Throughout its history, Tesco demonstrated its capacity to innovate. The Green coupons is a very good example on how Tesco was thinking one (or several steps) ahead of competition. They once again stroke with the first reward card in the industry.

Audacious:
Not only they had the ideas, but they had the guts to realize them, despite the mockeries of the rest of the industry. They definitely took risks in investing several hundred millions in a computerized system to manage their reward program.

In advance:
The first two qualities gave them two main advantages on their main competitors: Time and Experience, which, if used efficiently, can make a significant difference. How?

Database size:
First, by having a richer database, constantly enriched through new subscribers coming either from Tesco, or from partnerships in other industries. When you’re the first on the market, you can choose the best partners in each sector. These partnerships give a huge advantage to Tesco, increasing the access to new customers and providing them with higher adavantages.

Database exploitation:
Having a database is good, but exploiting it in a very accurate way could be great. 90% of the Job is the way to exploit the database, which is the case of Tesco. Many improvements were made through advertisement, direct marketing operations and other actions, giving a highly personalized service for customers (personalized letters, magazines,…).

E-commerce:
Once again, being the first gives often a significant advantage on your competitors. Even though sales through internet does not exceed 1,5% of the total sales, this distribution channel is the fastest growing, and with 50% market share, Tesco earned a significant competitive advantage.

Tesco reward and CRM systems and early arrival in the Internet offer, definitely gave a huge competitive advantage. I a world in which speed is a major component of success, Tesco arrived the first in this field, allowing it to improve significantly many fields before its competitors. The most important is obviously a huge improvement in the knowledge of customers’ needs and behaviors, allowing Tesco to use much more efficiently all the traditional marketing actions (advertisement, direct marketing,…).

Join Lebanese in Madrid Facebook Group

Want to meet orther Lebanese living in Madrid and chat with them, join Lebanese in Madrid Facebook Group;
When you connect tp facebook, just search for Lebanese in Madrid

Cheers
Joseph

Meneame

One more site who does'nt know how to make money...
At least this one was created by people just investing some time and having fun achieving a technical exercice rather than starting by raising some millions to burn.

How to make money out of a successful site, offering free news content to its readers.
Well I can't find a huge number of ways:
1- make people pay for the site or parts of it = kill the chicken before even delivering the golden egg. Most of the users will either continue only on the free part, or go away.

2- advertisement:
a- Banners: seems to me as the old generation way tp make adds on the net. Not efficient and probably not very profitable
b- Interactive adds aiming to proposa and add relevant to what the surfer is reading or used to read. Much more efficient, probably percieved less intrusively by the surfer (who can even find it useful).
The problem is how to do it because it definitely needs an application which scans what are the users' habits, readings,... Two choices:
aa- develop an in house one (which can even be sold afterwards to other sites. Time & Money costly
bb- Start with Google adsense, and than, eventually, develop an in house application if not satisfied with adsense.

Restaurants in Madrid: Restaurant Yunie

Where: Restaurant Yunie, Calle de Melendez Valdes 64.
Food: 4/5
The best Lebanese food I had in Madrid. He has true lebanese shawarma, Chiken and Beef, great toom, hommos and baba ghannouj,...But you need to call if you want some specific lebanese dishes. They do basicaly everything, but most of the dishes should be ordered in advance.
Place: 3/5
It's a small restaurant which looks like a Tapas Bar. can welcome in fairly good conditions up to 30 persons.Service: 5/5George and Amal are very nice people, it's a family business and you feel like home.
Service: 5/5
George and Amal are really nice. You feel at home!
Price: 4/5
below 20 EUR if you order with the sandwiches drinks + Mezzé plates. Below 10 if you take only sandwiches and drinks.
Overall Grade: 4/5, a must in Madrid

Lebanese Restaurants in Madrid: Las Mil y una Noches

Restaurant and Chicha bar "Las mil y una noches"
Where: C/ Martín De Los Heros 28
Food: 2/5
For a European person it's ok, but for a lebanese, it's below average.
Place: 2/5
The restaurant is huge and can take up to 250 persons. But the decor is not really Lebanese (more persian or indian style). It doesn't give a sentiment of great cleanness.
Service: 3/5
The peronnel comes from Egypt, Morocco, Irak, Spain,...everywhere besides Lebanon. But the service is Ok. The cook and owner are Lebanese.
Price: 2/5
There is a Group (over 25 pers) Fromula for 24 EUR without drinks. Count 30 EUR per person with drinks. For Madrid, it's not cheap.
Overall Grade: 2/5

Install Ubuntu 8.1 on Dell Inspiron 8200: Old Computer Revival

Hi Everybody,
Here's a feedback on my experience installing Ubuntu 8.1 (latest available version) on an old computer, not used for 1 year.
Specs: Dell Inspiron 8200, 1.7 Mhz iCPU, 512 Mo RAM, 40 Go HD, Radeon 5900 GC, initially running under Windows XP.
Decision: Install only Ubuntu on the computer, without sharing it with XP (possible option).
Steps:
1- Back up all personal documents, including Outlook back up,...
2- Download Ubuntu 8.1 cd image file and burn it on a CD.
3- Restart computer by changing the boot option from HD to CD
4- Cd is launched at startup => choose the option
5- I chose the option to install exclusively Ubuntu and reformat the HD
6- Display problem, black screen, nothing happens
7- Search on the net with my other computer on forums for solutions
8- After an hour or so, got a proposal to add at the installation launch command "vga=771"
The problem is that i did'nt have any clue about linux language, where to add this option,...
9- By pressing F6 and trying several times, then teh solution was:
delete the double minus signs at the end of the command line "--", and replace it with vga=771
10- Banco, it works! 40 minutes or so later, Ubuntu is installed!
Because the VGA and Graphic card issue, the installation is longer than the normal procedure and less user friendly….But here we go, let’s discover a new world!
Will follow:
Windows v/s Ubuntu, 1st impression, Impression after a month utilization.
Cheers

Beirut: Best place to visit in 2009 for New York Times

Check out the link below

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/11/travel/20090111_DESTINATIONS.html