I couldn’t take a better shot with my camera because I was running low on batteries, the photo ended up a little bit blurry. I would like to thank my brother Rami, Elie Haddad and Michel Sfeir.

Tell me what you think!

Very cool and motivating video for entrepreneurs…

Can you think of a company that is not reliant on internet today? In fact, not just internet, businesses today depend on reliable and fast internet connections. Lebanon, one of the 1st countries in the middle east to connect to the WWW is now facing major problems in the technology field.

Web Applications have been growing very fast. As they require better hardware (that are fortunately available), they also require a faster internet connection. The concept of Cloud is getting more and more popular, your data is no longer stored on your PC, it’s now stored on the holy cloud. Clouds allow you to have your information synchronized with all your machines (mobile, laptop, desktop, PDA etc…). This has become critical but can we handle this massive amount of data transfer?

I did a survey and found out that the big majority still have 128kbps internet connections, which is equivalent to 0.125 mbps (excluding the big portion of people who are still using Dial up modems). A normal user can get a maximum of 1mbps (which is fair, but very limited in terms of daily/monthly quota). Let’s compare it to other countries:

I am an entrepreneur and I cannot tell you how much this matter is disturbing me. The Lebanese pathetic infrastructure is directly affecting our economy. Why?

1. Young generations are not capable of keeping up with the technology.
2. Enterprises are afraid to launch branches of their companies in Lebanon. (Think about employment)
3. Lebanon is not known as a technology oriented country.
4. It’s very tough to launch a startup in Lebanon. (Woopra as an example)
5. Great entrepreneurs are leaving the country seeking better infrastructure for their venture.

I had a chance to meet the Lebanese Minister of Telecom Eng. Jubran Bassil a few months back and discussed this problem, he seemed very open and promised to be looking further into that. Bassil recently revealed on the press that he’s aware of this issue and working on a plan for this summer (2009). What if he doesn’t get elected again?

The ministry was also very excited to launch the Edge (not even 3G) connectivity for mobiles. I can’t believe they were serious about that!! I mean, I’m not paying 5$ for only 5MB of usage and 2$ for every extra MB. It’s like paying 5$ everytime I check my email inbox. I hope our Telecom ministry is not serious about this crappy solution.

Not to forget the huge Ogero scandal. As they have become DSL providers, they are not supplying private ISPs enough bandwidth for them to acquire the largest chunk of DSL users. I personally have 2 DSL accounts, 512 kbps and 1 mbps (at IDM), is it possible that I’m downloading at the rate of 5 kB/s and less than 1 kB/s at peak hours? And what about this silly quota limitation? 5GB of download per month? This is ridiculous.

“I have heard many reports of “unfair market practices” by Ogero vis a vis the DSPs.” said Mrs. Salam Yamout, a member of the Lebanese Broadband Stakeholders Group. “ISPs not being able to offer their customers DSL service because they do not get capacity from Ogero. This is the case of GDS in Achrafieh for example. In another case, a customer reported that an Ogero representative called him to offer him the Blink service within 24 hours while he has been waiting for his ISP DSL service for few days. Such practices are condemned in countries that have liberalized their telecommunications market, but not in Lebanon! It is said that there are 100,000 DSL subscribers in Lebanon (fastest DSL pick up in the world) 80% for Ogero, the rest divided among the 5 private DSPs! This fast pick up is a reflection of the starvation of the market for broadband. How else do you explain that Lebanese people are flocking in numbers to get poorer quality service, more expensive, and slower connectivity than in other countries?”

If you feel that we need the change, sign the broadband manifesto which was started by a group of people like you and me, sick and tired of the way this country evolves.

WP AutoSuggest is a new plugin for WordPress that I released today. I needed the ability to quickly find posts when I search on my blog by typing in a keyword rather than waiting for the results page to load.

This plugin was inspired by Google’s AutoSuggest feature which was initially created by Yahoo. Also, Facebook has been using this technique frequently which helps load data faster and of course consumes less bandwidth on both the client and the server’s ends.

Installing this plugin is very straight forward:

1. Download it from the WordPress plugins repository
2. Upload the directory wp-autosuggest to your WordPress plugins directory (/wp-content/plugins/).
3. Activate the plugins from the Plugins section in your WP Admin area.

Note: For some templates, the designers have changed the Input ID of the search (I did that), so you can change the ID of your search box from the Settings > WP Autosuggest (It’s s by default).

There are a lot of customizations and options I’m considering, like Color Themes, Display etc… If you are familiar with the WordPress Codex and feel like contributing to this plugin, contact me!

WP AutoSuggest page has been created for you to follow the updates which will be followed by a detailed blog post.

If you have some suggestions, please write a comment.

Stay tuned.

1. Stay motivated

   The best way to get motivated is to read success stories. The more you see people succeeding, the more you feel you have higher chances to succeed. Of course, if you read stories about people failing, that’s not going to motivate you! As an entrepreneur, you’ll pass through really hard times but if you are motivated enough they will not affect you at all.

2. Get inspired but do not copy

   Don’t be ashamed to get inspired from others’ work, keep doing it every minute but do not copy anything, keep your stuff original. Inspiration is a very good way to make you sense better, learn from others’ experience and you will have a clearer vision of what’s already there and where you need to add your innovative substance.

3. Invest your own money

   There are two very important reasons for you to invest your own cash in your business. At the very early phase, no one may be fascinated by your thoughts unless you have crazy links with investors. You need to deposit a good budget to facilitate your growth; otherwise the big brothers will suck you up. The other very vital reason to invest your money is to make you more devoted. When you put some liquid in your business, that’s going to help you not give up easily. I’d say US$3000 is a good amount to begin with for entrepreneurs on the web, but don’t take my words on that, businesses vary a lot from one to another.

Continue Reading.

If you have a blog or a website, one of your important goals is to raise your Google Pagerank. Why? Because a higher Pagerank will give you more credibility into your business or persuasive articles. Fortunately, this blog’s Pagerank is 5 which is very good for a personal blog. It took me 3 years to have this pagerank! I’m not going to explain how to get a higher Pagerank, but Search Engine Optimization specialists say that more backward links from higher pageranked websites to your website will help you raise your Google Pagerank.

To see your Google Pagerank, you can install the Google Toolbar. Or, I have created a simple Java Program that shows you your pagerank and I’ve provided the source code. Check it out!

This is something I have been waiting for a long long time. I was thinking about this project around 3 years ago and imagining its benefits. I’m a musician, I want to form a blues band and compose music. But, there’s no blues keyboard player around! Why not looking online for that player and perhaps compose and improvise together online.

YouTube™ has just released their Collaborative Online Orchestra Project. At the moment, it seems that it’s only classical music oriented. Are they going to expand the music style? is any startup ready to work on something like that? Being part of an eBluesBand would make me more than happy .

I would see it this way:

1. Start a new project that has only one instrument: The Metronome
2. As a guitarist, I decide on the scale and start improvising.
3. I’d publish it online and wait for contributions.
4. A vocalist, keyboardist, bassist or drummer can pickup my project and perform on it.
5. I get notified that someone has a contribution that is pending moderation. As soon as I approve, he/she becomes a part of my band.
6. And so on, until I decide that the track is complete.
7. Sell it on iTunes? or publish it for free?

This is really an amazing project to work on. If you are a serious developer, you love music and willing to invest some time to work on this project, let me know! We can come up with something together.

As most of you know, I am the co-founder of Woopra (iFusion Labs, LLC), a start-up that was developed in Lebanon and was released in the United States. iFusion Labs, LLC is now based in Dallas, TX.

I heard from so many people that Obama will affect businesses and investments by having them pay even more taxes! Now that he’s the next president of the United States, I decided to read Obama’s Blue Print Of Change because this is one of the factors that may affect my future.

Here’s what he said about startups and entrepreneurs:

Provide Tax Relief for Small Businesses and Start-Up Companies: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will eliminate all capital gains taxes on start-up and small businesses to encourage innovation and job creation. Obama and Biden will also support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to almost every worker in America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation.

Lower Health Care Costs with a New Small Business Health Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help lower the costs for small businesses to offer health insurance to their employees. The Obama-Biden Small Business Health Tax Credit will provide a refundable credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees. To be eligible for the credit, small businesses will have to offer a quality health plan to all of their employees, and cover a meaningful share of the cost of employee health premiums. The credit would be fully available to small firms, and would be phased out for medium-sized firms. It would also be phased out for small firms with high-income employees.

Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business incubators. Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. Obama and Biden will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.

I was watching yesterday the elections in the US. I admired the final speeches and the democracy in this country. Having a Lebanese political background, I would say that I really envy the Americans for what they’ve got!

Obama reminds me of Dimyanos Kattar, a Lebanese wise man, who was a candidate for the Lebanese presidency. Will we ever make a similar change in Lebanon?

Yes we can!

This is something I couldn’t expect to be done anytime soon by either Google Maps or Live Maps. It’s exciting that I can finally see the Maps of Lebanon, even the small village where I live got a label!

The question is now, will I be able to use the GPS/Google Maps on my iPhone in Lebanon? That would be awesome, especially that I always get lost in beirut .

Speaking about Google Maps and iPhones, I have a big surprise for the Woopra community who got iPhones! I’ll talk about it in the right time.

Thank you Google.

Update: iPhone updated their maps to show Lebanese Maps! I can’t wait to test it in few days (Thanks ElieDH and Wadih)

PS: Wadih Ghsoubi pointed me out to this Google Maps update.

I was watching Wall-E for the 3rd time today. It’s an amazing movie which is all about optimism; Wall-E who was left alone along with his little pet was able to save the earth after 700 years.

When I was watching the movie, I found many things in common with MacOS. First of all, Wall-E recharges 3 times (if I’m not wrong) during the movie and when it charges, it plays the Mac’s start-up shime. What is also remarkable is that Eve’s design is so close to Macs! So I guessed that there should be a link between this movie and Apple. So, I’ve done some research online and found out that Steve Jobs (Apple’s CEO), has bought The Graphics Group (later renamed Pixar) from Lucasfilm’s computer graphics division in 1986 for the price of US$10 million, US$5 million of which was given to the company as capital. Eve was designed by Apple’s Chief Industrial Designer Jonathan Ives. That’s cool! My question was answered…

Then I found the following picture and changed it a little bit

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