Month: August 2009
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Back to School (and the horrible schoolbooks Jordan’s children are given)
Can a schoolbook cover look more depressing? A miserable boy, asleep at the desk, writing in his copy-book, ink bottle by his side. I want you to feast your eyes on the the photo above and the eleven other examples from 3rd grade government curricula schoolbooks, which I photographed three years ago (but always kept…
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SYNTAX seeking Business development wizard in the UAE
SYNTAX is shifting gears. If you are a business development wizard, but also a passionate believer that design can save the world, then you might want to check out this announcement on the SYNTAX blog.
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Amman’s Google map now appears on mobiles!
Last night was the first time I drive in Amman with a GPS map in my car! Yipee! In the end, it was Google who were first in providing this experience. As I mentioned in a previous post, Google Maps has, for the past few months, included a Amman map with main street names in…
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The Maktoob-Yahoo deal: Shame on the Jordanian press that doesn’t understand!!
After the euphoria of yesterday’s news about Yahoo buying Maktoob for an estimated US$ 85 million, and after seeing the name of this Jordan-made brand on the pages and screens of every major international news outlet, and after the topic “Maktoob” made it to the top 10 topics of Twitter.. I was expecting to see…
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Yahoo acquires Maktoob: the Jordanians did it!
As all eyes were on Dubai in the past hour to follow the official news of Yahoo’s acquisition of Maktoob.com, my mind wandered to an old stone house near Amman’s 2nd Circle, which, for over a decade was the ‘house of Maktoob’, and the birthplace of what is now the biggest success story of the…
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Spotted: A neat prototype of Amman’s new bus shelters
A couple of weeks ago, as I was driving up from Ras AL Ein to the the 3rd Circle, I noticed something interesting on the street. Apparently this is the first prototype of Amman’s new bus shelters. I stopped the car, then waited (quite a bit) for the two ladies sitting there to get on…
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SYNTAX scraps its website, replacing it with one lousy web page
At SYNTAX, we’re the kind of people who’d make fun of companies and government departments who don’t update their websites. If you hire us, we’d lecture you for hours about the importance of “staffing your website” with people who can communicate on the web and keep your website fresh and updated. We’d also point out…
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My wish list for Apple’s upcoming/rumored iTablet
The web is abuzz again with Apple rumors. It really seems that the long rumored Apple iTablet will finally see the light of day. Most predictions about the device seem to be describing an oversize iPod Touch. It is clear that the success of the iPhone/iPod Touch App Store has been amazing. I mean.. show…
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Amman’s GPS map on Nokia should be released within weeks..
My own investigation and also some reader tips have indicated that the Nokia map for Amman and Jordan should be released within a month or so. It seems that Navteq/Nokia have finally gotten “local approval” to release their map. I don’t know exactly what was holding up the public release of both the Nokia/Navteq map…
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Follow where your friends are lurking online.. with Folowen.com
In the old days (just a few years ago) people maybe had a blog or a personal homepage (my first home page was on GeoCities!). Today, your friends (or enemies or people you are interested in are talking all over the web. They talk to friends on Facebook. They try to say interesting things to…
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Where the heck did Amman’s big red tour busses disappear?
Ok, this is really old new by now. But I still would be interested in more info. Last year, Amman got its first tour busses which, like in any big capital, meant to keep going around town in a certain path, passing through all the cities notable sites, shopping opportunities and landmarks. They became part…
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Clinton brings the two journalists home: a moment of American greatness
Photo by Jonathan Alcorn for The New York Times Just a few hours ago, a white, unmarked plane carrying former US President Bill Clinton and two American journalists Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, touched down in an airport near Los Angeles, back from North Korea, where the two women were detained since March.…