The mystery of the slow updates

No, not SQL stuff in case you were wondering. Now you can relax.

I can read your mind though, Chris doesn't update his blog all that much these days. I know I'm not blogging as much as I would like to these days. And it's not about suffering a "blogger's block" either.

It's just that so much is happening and I have so many things to attend to. The main highlight would be the move to the new apartment.

Now unfurnished rental apartments here come a bit more equipped than in Egypt, because in Egypt you get pretty much nothing but a floor and some walls whereas here you get a fridge, dishwasher, washer, dryer, stove, and sometimes even a microwave (not in my case). This should make things easier right? Well a bit easier maybe, but not easy enough.

Since my Microsoft temp housing term will end on November 21st, I thought I should get the basic things first, you know, at least to be able to sleep in the apartment. So I went shopping for a mattress. And I was in for a real surprise.

In theory, shopping for a mattress should be easy enough. At least that's what I thought. I mean, I got my laptop in 10 minutes online so how hard could it be to get a mattress.
Wrong wrong wrong.

My shopping trip began with the only place I'd heard of during my stay, through ads and stuff. Sleep country. I was under the impression that mattresses typically cost a couple hundred dollars and I was willing to pamper myself and maybe spend up to a ridiculous $500 for a mattress, because, you know, I'm a spendthrift and stuff. It's true that I had no real evidence or data to get me "under" this impression. But the fact remains that I was under it.

I enter sleep country and I'm greeted by a nice salesman. I tell him I'm looking for a mattress and that I'm completely clueless about the sizes/types (yes there are many types of mattresses in case you are as mattress-ignorant as I am (or was) ) etc.

He was trying to ask me about my preference of whether I like firm mattresses vs. plush ones, I just kept staring blankly at him. He probably thought I just landed from the moon. Heck, even _I_ felt as if I just landed from the moon.

So anyway, he asks me to "test drive" a few mattresses to find out more about my "sleeping preferences". Good enough. I try a few ones (a few as in 5 or 6) and he tells me that I seem to prefer the less firm mattresses.I had no idea I did.
The guy then takes me to try another "type" of mattresses. The ones I've been trying were Sealy, a well known brand of mattresses here. The other type was called BeautyRest, which features different "technology" if you will.

The man then goes on to explain that a BeautyRest mattress uses "individual coil springs" rather than Sealy's "interconnected coil springs" This causes the mattress to have more controlled vibrations and the end result is that each part is more free to move independently which supposedly provides for better back support and the added "feature" that you don't feel it as much when someone else is getting on the bed on the other side.

Now I'm 100% positive you don't really care about mattress technology, but neither do I. I just have to recreate the atmosphere for you to live the experience just as I did.

So anyway, I am kinda impressed with the BeautyRest and proceed to ask about prices. And then my jaw drops to the floor. A queen mattress set would be around the $1300 mark. I probably need to explain a bit before I go on.

Queen is the size of the mattress, mattress sizes have their own names here. Queen is generally bought by couples because it's wide enough to fit two. You probably know I am not a couple and so wonder why I need one.
Problem is that the master mattress architect who invented those sizes here seems ot have been under the impression that couples are usually much taller than single individuals. And hence for some (weird and unknown as Nag would say) reason decided to make sizes grow in both width and height simultaneously. In short, if you get a smaller size you get a narrower as well as shorter mattress. So to sleep alone I need to cut off a significant part of my feet, which I'm really not too excited about doing right now.

The really observant amongst you would have noticed the word "set" in "A queen mattress set" too, you don't usually buy just a mattress. Instead you want to get a mattress set, which is the mattress plus a box spring. A box spring is what you put a mattress on, it comes in normal and low profile versions and serves as support for the mattresses. This is probably the equivalent of "el molla" in Egypt, but beds are designed here just as frames (and an *optional* head board) so you need this to support the mattress and rest on the bed frame.

If you feel you're not entirely confused and/or bored by now I would encourage you to visit this where you could "learn" about the mattress jargon. It should do it.
And you thought computers were complicated.

So anyway, to cut a long story short. I didn't get a mattress. I decided I need to "research" the matter a bit more, seeing that mattresses seem to go anywhere from $700 to $6300, it is now an investment. So I'm taking my time researching brands, types, technologies (there is more than just the two technologies described earlier, msnsearch (not google! ;) ) for memory foam mattress if you're still awake), and prices.
Sleeping on the floor is not off the table either :)

May you never need to buy a mattress ever.

SQL Server 2005 Launch!

Well, I'm sure most of you in the IT business know that last Monday, November 7th marked the launch of SQL Server 2005.

It was actually a joint launch featuring SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and Biztalk server 2006. The biggest tools launch even in the history of Microsoft at that too.

And while the main worldwide event was in San Fransisco we got a bit of action going on here too. And yours truly was making sure to catch a glimpse of it, as well as the preparations preceding it with my trusty camera.

As for the employees, we had celebrations going on in all campus cafeterias, with some nice freebies. Cups, stress balls, T-shirts, and breakfast were there. And we had a big screen broadcasting the live show from San Fransisco.

As part of the SQL Server team myself we get some more cool stuff. We got a special hilarious T-shirt that almost all of us wore to work on the launch day. You'll see me wearing it in one of the pictures. On the front the writing goes like: Select Joy, Relief & Exhaustion FROM "SQL Server 2005" WHERE Status = 'Complete'. On the back the writing is: Join Me I'm a *. Pretty clever I think, should sound funny if you know SQL. I was told they had an entire email thread picking up the lines to go on the T-shirt :) We're also gonna be going on a skiing trip to Whistler BC, Canada for the shipping party December 2nd to 4th. Excellent timing for me to join the team I guess :)

So well, there goes the pictures, inside MS on SQL Server launch day.


People lining up to receive the freebies.


Helal, Fernando, and I. Fernando is also a new hire at Microsoft. He's spanish and has become a friend of ours. He's also the one taking care of most of the squash teaching for me now :)




After the event all of the sql team were asked to sign a life size SQL Server box. And that they did :)


Helal signing the box.


Can you figure out where my signature is? Come on, click for the large version and look for it ;)


Ok, you probably couldn't find it in there. Now should be obvious :)


Have a nice week everybody!

Helal's Car

Well, I think it's time to let the cat out of the bag.
Actually one could argue it was time sometime ago already. But stuff has been happening faster than I can blog. This of course can be thought of as good for me, but it's definitely not so good for the blog.

So anyway, Helal, my friend and roommate, got his car a couple of weeks ago. And now that he did we finally answered a question we spent countless hours debating before we'd relocated. BMW vs. Mercedes Benz.

So without much further ado, I present to you this magnificent piece of machinery he acquired. A really amazing car.


The photos below are of the car which is a 2006 E90 BMW 325i with sports and premium packages, an auto box, and xenon headlights. Interesting thing to mention is that the E90 325i is actually a 3000cc with 215 bhp, that is just 10bhp less than the previous generation 330i. Of course they also increased the power on the new 330 which now has 255bhp (although still 3000cc)

So anyway, here are the "initial" pics. Planning for a drive on a scenic road with both cars to do some group shots but this will have to wait a bit.
Click on any image for a larger version.

Eid El Fitr in Redmond

Well, being in the US doesn't mean I can't celebrate Eid El Fitr, right? ;)

And celebrate I did, it was an eventful day and full of "first times" for me. Sushi, learning how to use chop sticks, and karting were some of the main highlights. Read on for the details :)

At first we were not sure if Eid El Fitr is gonna be on November 3rd here in the US or November 4th, because Ramadan started one day later in the US than in Egypt. But I woke up on November 3rd to find Helal telling me he's going to pray because Eid El Fitr turned out to be on the 3rd after all.

We had already planned on taking a floating holiday on the day and spend the day together with the Egyptian group here at MS. So I woke up at around 10am, had a pretty late breakfast and took my shower only to find a call from one of the guys asking me if I'm gonna join them for lunch at this sushi place "Todai" in Redmond town center. I'd already told them I wanted to try sushi before so perhaps I was part of the inspiration for this.

I dressed quickly and caught up with them over there at 12 or something, turns out the place is an open buffet sushi place and all the better for it. No better way to try just about everything at once :) I took a quick tour around, took one of everything they had on offer and returned to my table with my plate full of stuff I have never tasted before. The guys were wondering if I should have tasted a few ones first to see if I like it before I fill my plate, but I just love trying new stuff, I didn't really care if I'm gonna like it, I just like the opportunity to try the new tastes.

And for the first time ever I understand the rationale behind the chopsticks. I've been looking for the chopsticks' raison d'être, something that just can't be handled with a fork. And I found it in Sushi rolls. It was an excellent experience overall.

And continuing the "first time" theme we then decided we should go karting. So we went to the closest indoor track. The track (map here)looked kinda small at first, but I was really blown away with all the technology.

The races are about lap times and not an actual head to head race. So we would go 4 or 5 ppl at a time for 18 laps but it's your best lap that counts, you can go as slow (or as sideways) as you like for 17 laps and get that perfect lap just once and you'd come out first.

This was actually my first time ever karting, and did I enjoy it! It was a blast, we were 8 people and we each bought 3 races so they would mix and match between us for us to go against different competitors every time.
The thing is that I knew beforehand about optimal racing lines, and the whole concept of how to do a fast time around the track so I expected to have an advantage, at least over people who are also doing it for the first time. It seems the theory is very different than practice because even though I knew the basics, I did pretty horrible for the first two races, I was pretty much the last. In my defence I swear the kart I had for the first race was slower than the others because I would be goin at the kart's limit on the straight and still be overtaken by others. The guys of course wouldn't just watch. They kept teasing me with comments like "Maybe you should bring the z4, see if it can go faster around the track" and "There is no z4 to help you here". It was all in good spirit and we laughed for hours though :)

To their disappointment I do my last race and it seems that I'm finally getting the kart and the track. The last race was also special because the guys over there gave us a bit of an adernaline shot by giving us the turbo mode during the last few laps, where they put more power into the karts and we were allowed to go faster. 23 mph I think was the number which feels awfully fast in such a small indoor track.

And the biggest surprise of the day was that not only I won the last race. But I also got the fastest time of all for the whole day, pulling an 18.42 second lap (I was doing 23 seconds on my first race).
Actually the lap turned out to be the 3rd best laptime during this month (November 2005). And you can even check it out for yourselves here Of course I was jumping all over the place with excitement.

We then continued on to having dinner together at chili's and went home afterwards. It was a marvelous day and if any of the Egyptian MS guys are reading, thank you all guys for making that day the amazing day that it was. Special thank you to loay for arranging for the most part of this day and always working on keeping the group together.

Happy Eid!

To all the people in Egypt, Happy Eid!!
Kol sana wento tayebeen

I really wish I could've been with you guys on a day like this but I can't. So you have the most fun and go easy on the food :)
We hato bomb we far2a3ohooly la7san mesh la2y bomb hena :)

Kol sana wento bel se7a wel salama, enjoy :)