Elie Khoury

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!

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 just came back from the BlogWorldExpo 2008 which was held in Las Vegas. This is my first experience as an exhibitor, and I love it ! Woopra was sharing a booth with WordPress and LayeredTech and it was one of the busiest places in the trade show.

I met plenty of Woopra fans, they shared their Woopra experience with us. Lorelle VanFossen (our crazy editor) was doing some Woopra demos for those who have never seen Woopra. Also John, Jad and I were there answering some Woopers questions and writing a big list of features requests. As I got home, I started the implementation of that list.

At night, we were hanging out with John P., Aaron Philips and Greg Kuiper. We spent our time taking pictures, gambling, walking, walking, walking and walking. My legs are still hurting now…

Last time I was in Las Vegas, I didn’t have the chance to see the old vegas! this time we did and John took a video on the Freemont Street show; I posted it here. We have also taken some photos, I posted some of the pics taken by Greg and I. I’m still waiting for John and Lorelle to send me what they got to post them here!

Bellagio Las Vegas Water Show taken by Greg:

Overcoming the odds, Lebanese software gurus enter internet eminence

The world’s most popular internet applications, including Yahoo, Google, Facebook and YouTube, share several interesting characteristics. Nearly all were developed by students enrolled in American universities and nearly all were aided by an American venture capital injection to successfully enter the market. Lebanese-born Elie Khoury and Jad Younan have followed more or less the same path, yet with one major difference: they developed their Woopra program in Lebanon. Against all odds, some may argue, as the Land of the Cedars can hardly be described as an IT incubator.

Both Khoury and Younan graduated from the Lebanese American University in Byblos in 2007 with a degree in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, respectively. They spent many hours in class, but they spent many more nights working late on Woopra, a live tracking and analytics service that aims to send market leader Google Analytics into oblivion.

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John pointed me out to this video made by Vinnie and Virgil. It made my day! So Vinnie is trying to explain what he loves about Woopra and keeps getting interrupted by the old man Virgil who sounds like he has never seen a computer before…

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As I said in an earlier post, that if I make it to the US, I will definitely go to Austin to take photos with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s statue. I’ve been in the US for a month and here I am today in Austin, have taken a photo with the Statue .

Plus, I was able to meet one of my favorite teachers at the Lebanese American University Munjid Musallam who was supervising my Final Year Project Woopra. Now that Woopra has become a big hit, we were reminding each other of the old days . Not to forget his wife who taught me the Oral Communication at LAU and his daughter who graduated too from LAU and is now continuing her studies at the University of Austin Texas. Thank you for this great day .

I’m driving back tomorrow morning to Dallas to release an auto-update of the new version of Woopra.
Cheers!

1- Gary Moore

Gary Moore is an Irish blues guitarist and singer. As I’ve already mentioned in my older posts, Gary has always been my guitar idol since my very early guitar experience. His guitar tone is unique and warm. I never watched him live yet, but I will definitely do. I guess it’s still very early for him to quit the blues world. What really makes this guitarist amazing is his bendings! they’re just perfect. His music is very easy to assimilate due to the pattern he always follows but in the same time, you cannot expect the next note.

My favorite tunes for Gary Moore are “Still Got The Blues”, “Parisienne Walkways (watch my video)” and “Story of the Blues”.

2- Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong, a cornet, trumpet player and singer, is the king of Jazz Ballads. When I listen to Louis, I can think of a bottle of wine, a cheminee or an old cosy house in the mountain . Louis’ topics are all based on optimistic romance unlike the blues musicians. His music is very joyful and goes straight to the heart. One funny thing about Louis is that he had always claimed to be born on the USA Independence day (July 4, 1900), but in fact, he was born on July 4, 1901 and he was recorded as an illegitimate black child. Louis died on July 6, 1971.

My favorite tunes for Louis Armstrong are “What a Wonderful World” and “A Kiss to Build a Dream on”.

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