Pooya's place (in the Gulf)

Bringing Startup Weekend to Dubai

pooyadarugar — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:30:00 GMT

After a successful Startup Weekend in Oman in July, we are in the very early stages of discussions to bring a similar event to Dubai. At this point, there are not many details to share but it’s a great time to get the communities feedback on what they would like to see and how they can contribute.

For those that are not familiar with Startup Weekend, it’s a very interesting concept to help launch companies by bringing together motivated individuals or groups to brainstorm ideas, develop them and launch a company all in one weekend. It’s also a great place to meet other entrepreneurs in your community and make some great connections.

Startup Weekend explained

If you’re interested in being a sponsor, participating or speaking at the event, please reach out and let us know. We’ll keep you posted on the event as the planning progresses, stay tuned to this blog for more details.

IE9 beta: beyond speed and standards, 5 simple things done well

pooyadarugar — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:37:57 GMT

Most of the talk around IE9 has been on performance and standards support but from the first few hours of trying it out, there are lots of small, neat features I found very useful. Here are my top 5 simple features in IE9 Beta:

1. Pinning sites – I’d call it appifying of sites, let’s see if this catches on. I didn’t really get this feature until I tried it out for myself, now I like it a lot. Here I’ve pinned the twitter.com site to my Windows 7 taskbar. What this means is that I have the twitter logo on my taskbar whenever I want to launch the site and also have some common functionality in the jump list (New Tweet, @ Mentions, …). In a way, this can be a very lightweight “desktop” application, it’s on my desktop, has some functionality and then has the site for the more complicated parts. I can see this being useful for lots of sites that are almost applications, Facebook, Twitter, … and work well for me as I like the browser interface and don’t like to install too many applications, more portable across machines as well. For developers, here is the guidance on how to make your sites pinnable and work in this fashion: Pinned Sites: Windows 7 Desktop Integration with Internet Explorer 9

2. Privacy – Asks if you would like search suggestions in the “One Box” URL + Search box. I’m not sure if I prefer the 1 box or 2 separate boxes but I appreciate that IE9 defaults to not sharing keystrokes, lets the user know how search suggestions work and asks if you’d like them turned on.

3. Privacy – InPrivate browsing has been around since IE8, but it’s nice to see it get some more exposure. It’s a great feature that I don’t think many people know about and take advantage of.

4. Add-on performance advisor – the first time you run IE9 beta, it will ask you whether you want to speed up the startup of the browser by disabling some Add-ons. I remember when I first got my thinkpad, IE8 would take forever to start and after a little digging around, it turned out to be a Lenovo sign-on add-on that was installed by default. This little feature could’ve saved me a lot of time investigating and also made a better impression for the browser.

5. Developer tools – This is a beta after all and this is a developer blog, so the final feature I like is even better developer tools. Every developer needs a good profiling tool and a network tool to check web performance, HTTP headers, … and these are now built in with IE9 and give quite detailed reports like these:

I have to use it more to see if I end up liking the one box and there are some good features that others have had like the most visited sites, but so far I’m very happy with the IE9 beta. So those are my initial thoughts on the IE9 beta, there are lots of reviews out there already and you can see the official site for all the top features and some demos: http://www.beautyoftheweb.com

Try it out and see what you think.

Startup talk at SP Jain

pooyadarugar — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:51:00 GMT

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting at the SP Jain Center of Management in Dubai Technology Week to a group of MBA students with technology backgrounds. I was very impressed with the level of students at this school; we’re actually working with groups of students from there this year on several research projects. I greatly enjoyed the session and the over 1 hour of Q&A afterwards, great to see so many questions and the passion i the room.

I’ve posted the slides below, the session was put together as a mashup of existing decks from Rashmi Sinha (SlideShare) and a cleaned up version of a deck from Dave McClure, with inspiration from StartupQuote.com

Startup Talk

Hopefully will see some interesting startups emerge from this group, I think they have a a great head start on most people as they have IT backgrounds to give them the technical edge and are learning the business side of what it takes to be successful

WebMatrix – making web development simple

pooyadarugar — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:48:01 GMT

You have probably seen ScottGu’s list of new web development technologies (IIS Developer Express, SQL Server Compact Edition, and ASP.NET Razor) and possibly the announcement on WebMatrix. If you haven’t tried WebMatrix yet, I would highly recommend it; I’m a big believer in simple.

If you’ve ever wanted to set up Wordpress, Drupal or any of the open source applications in the Web App Gallery on your machine, WebMatrix (using Web Platform Installer under the hood) makes it unbelievably simple. I showed it to a friend yesterday who is a PHP developer and she was amazed at how simple it was to do this on Windows. Check out the video or just try it, you can set up Wordpress in less than a minute by filling in 1 simple form (for the DB credentials), PHP, Mysql and all other dependencies will be automatically downloaded and installed for you.

That stuff is a lot of fun, but what I wanted to show you today is how WebMatrix as a simple development tool can let you do the basics most people want in no time. Check out this simple web page:

As you can see, it has my latest twitter messages , with a Facebook “Like” button under it; and in the 2nd column has a Twitter search for “WebMatrix” and has the Share buttons under it. This page was created with absolutely no code, and no javascript; it leverages ASP.NET API. This is the code for it:

@Twitter.Profile("pooyad")
@Facebook.LikeButton("blogs.msdn.com/pooyad")

@Twitter.Search("webmatrix")
@LinkShare.GetHtml("Pooya's MSDN Blog", http://blogs.msdn.com/pooyad)

I built (that’s really too strong of a word, it was less than a minute of work) this page in WebMatrix:

There are lots more Code Helpers, beyond the twitter ones I used; showing a video (flash or silverlight), reCaptcha, sending email, … that can give a new web developer lots of tools to start with.

WebMatrix is definitely not for everyone. If you’re already a “professional” web developer, this is probably too simple for you and won’t meet advanced needs, there is always the “Launch Visual Studio” button, but you will probably skip WebMatrix.

Where I think this can really help is for hobbyists, students or people who really want a simple interface to build simple but engaging sites. You can be up an running with a WordPress blog in 5 minutes, or you can create a pretty neat looking and fully social media compliant :) site in about the same time.

Startup Weekend Oman

pooyadarugar — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:02:00 GMT

Had a great time at Startup Weekend Oman today, met some very enthusiastic entrepreneurs who were looking to launch their own companies. The teams will be presenting the top ideas to the judging panel on Friday, and no matter the outcome I think everyone learned a lot and made some great connections. I enjoyed the interaction with the mainly young Omanis who all had great energy and some great ideas, whether they create companies out of the ideas from this startup weekend or use the connections to start companies in the future, it was time well spent.

I presented the Bizspark program for the technology startups at the weekend and also covered some of the simple tools that any business can use to set up their web presence using the Microsoft web platform and open source applications. For those that were there or are interested, I’ve included the links and the presentation below.

Bizspark for Technology Startups: Bizspark Overview presentation

Microsoft.com/web – the place to start for everything web from Microsoft (All the tools, SEO help, Applications, and the WebsiteSpark program …)

including the new WebMatrix – Simple, Easy to use tool for building websites

I saw a lot more non-technology companies presented as well and showed the recently released WebMatrix tool to them for how to set up a simple blog site, ecommerce site or many others based on open source applications in the Web App Gallery and get hosting for those sites. Even if you’re not creating a web company, like the startup planning to sell Omani dates, you’ll still need a website to promote yourself and you never know when you’ll send up selling dates online :)

Overall a very good event set up by Aziza and company, looking forward to bringing Startup Weekend to Dubai in the near future.

Congratulations to Graphix, the winners of Startup Weekend Oman

Update: Adding pictures from the event and the winners

Check out the Archivist (Twitter Analysis tool)

pooyadarugar — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:38:24 GMT

Do you spend a lot of time on Twitter? Interested in analyzing trends, sources and more detailed information on what’s happening in the twitterverse on your topics? Check out the latest project from MIX Labs, the Archivist.

Archivist is a twitter search and analysis tool that lets you see (and archive) tweet information. Ever wanted to know which twitter user is the most active on your topic, what’s the top word associated with your topic or which the is the top linked URL?

Here is the archive for #VS2010

It’s still in alpha, so lots that can be improved and this is where you can help. Give you feedback on what you’d like to see. I’ve already requested that the Top URLs be clickable (you can click the bar next to it by the way).

Interesting things can come up, like “USA” is the 2rd most popular word associated with #worldcup, behind the actual word worldcup:

Enjoy and please give your feedback

Visual Studio 2010 Launch in Kuwait – May 18th

pooyadarugar — Sun, 16 May 2010 07:57:24 GMT

After the successful local launch of Visual Studio 2010 in UAE and Qatar, we’re coming to Kuwait.

Join us:

Date: May 18th

Time: 1:45pm – 7:20pm (includes “Robin Hood” movie)

Location: Cinescape 360 at 360 Mall, South Surra, Kuwait

REGISTER FOR THE PREMIERE

The results for Imagine Cup Gulf 2010 are in … and the winners are

pooyadarugar — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:04:09 GMT

Sekna, our academic programs manager has posted the Imagine Cup Gulf 2010 Regional finals results on the new Microsoft Gulf Community Blog.

1st Place – Kuwait (AUK) – TWTD

2nd Place – Oman (SQU) – Show me the Traffic

3rd Place – Bahrain (University of Bahrain) – Cash Trash

4th Place – UAE (UoWD) – Ear It

These top 4 teams will advance to the world wide finals. Check out the full results with the project details.

The Du mobile category was won by another team from Oman with their project “Find Me Taxi”.

It was a fantastic finals, they keep getting better every year. Great competition from all over the gulf and the top teams from Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and the UAE advancing to represent their countries.

For my part, I want to congratulate everyone who participated in Imagine Cup this year and wish the winners the best of luck in Poland this July as they compete against the best of the rest of the world. We saw so many technologies in use by the teams, from Surface to Windows Phone 7, Bing Maps, and even touchless technologies.

Also a special thanks to our partners Du and ITA Oman, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Check out some of the coverage of the event on ITP and photos.

Imagine Cup Gulf 2010 Regional Finals – May 3rd

pooyadarugar — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:44:29 GMT

Next week is a big week for us: Visual Studio 2010 launch in Dubai on May 2nd and our Imagine Cup Gulf Regional Finals on May 3rd.

It’s been a fun year working with all the students and it’s great to see all of their work in the projects that were selected for the regional finals. It’s been difficult to pick the top applications as there were so many good ones, and I’m very excited to see the finalists present in person next week. I want to say thanks and congratulations to everyone who participated this year, it’s inspiring to see the passion and creativity from the students in our region.

The teams will be joining us for a welcome dinner on Saturday, will get some coaching on presentation skills on Sunday as well as some fun activities, and hopefully get some rest before the big day.

We’ll hold the regional finals competition on May 3rd at the Atlantis to determine who will advance to the world wide finals in Poland in July; but no matter who wins, all of the teams are winners in my mind.

The top 10 Imagine Cup Gulf teams and their projects:


	Genius Touch Team – Bahrain Cash trash is simply a multifunctional smart recycle bin that will be used by public to dispose any recyclable materials. The device will contain a system that will count points for users for every time they use the device, of which the points will be exchanged later for valuable vouchers in favour of the user. Cash Trash objective is to create a solution that provides the rotes to achieve a stable, clean and pollution free environment, an environment that suits the existence of current and future generations.
M.A.A. Team – Kuwait This team has created and tested a multi-touch tutoring system for the physically challenged (TWTD). TWTD is educational software that uses markers and web-cam as a method of interacting with computers. The markers are defined according to the level of disability. The initial prototype was tested in Kuwaiti schools. It includes lessons for English, Math, Shapes and Science.
	AutoBots Team – Kuwait ‘WebAid’ is a free ad-supported web application that collects and stores information about disaster areas at the time of the disaster. At the time of a disaster, the information is broadcasted to its subscribers through various media, including text messaging, social networking and radio stations. The service can also be used to register disaster area requirements such as for food and medicine and can also provide the locations of shelters, hospitals and police stations, survival guidelines, local maps and navigation.
SQU Team – Oman ‘Find me taxi’ is a mobile application that allows people to book the best available taxi using real time information about available taxis. This application will encourage people to use taxis without exposed to weather difficulties.
	HAQ Team – Oman “Show Me The Traffic” is a web application that provides graphical information that describes the level of the traffic on roads using Microsoft “Bing Maps”. The web server of the solution will receive data from traffic detectors. Each detector consists of laser, laser receiver and data sending device.
BuziWomen Team – UAE ‘buziWomen’ is a website that will empower Emirati women in self-employment by opening the doors for them to run their own businesses and apply leadership skills as part of promoting gender equality. It will teach them the main business skills that they should have to run a successful business via provide online training and learning resources for them as well as a discussion forum where they will be able to share knowledge and ideas as well as discuss business issues.
	UAE Pixels ‘E-school 3.0’ is a web based solution that provides an easy to use interface for schools. One of the benefits is its drag and drop method for scheduling classes. It also provides electronic storage and retrieval of school, students, faculty, courses, grades, and many other related records. Also includes scanning of documents and saving them on the file system. Retrieval of the documents is just few seconds away. Parents can also view their children’s progress, attendance, schedule, and many other services provided through web interface.
Explorers Team – UAE ‘touch.Edu’ is a multi-touch Microsoft Surface, Windows 7 tablet and Windows phone 7 based interactive learning solution to the above stated problem. Children will find it more fun and interesting. This unique solution brings together the following powerful touch-screen platforms by Microsoft: Microsoft Surface, Windows 7 touch and Windows Phone 7.
	Brainiax Team – UAE HealthPal is a mobile application that provides diverse medical information, such as First Aid guides, hospital locations per city and per location, Fitness guide and symptoms and analysis for common illnesses. This information can be sent by SMS queries to users using other basic phones. Understanding that health requirements vary by location the application has links to connect and download location specific information, since Pocket PCs and smart phones may not have the capacity to store information for all locations. The application comes in 2 versions: the Pocket PC and Smartphone.
EM Team – UAE The software application Ear it will be addressing the global concern of hearing impairment by providing a low cost, easy-to-use mobile phone application to test a user’s degree of hearing (detection of hearing loss) at several frequency and pitch bands. This application will also prevent users from acquiring noise-induced hearing loss by generating pure white noise to cancel out the harmful noise (noise over 90 dB) in the user’s surrounding environment.

I also want to thank our supporters of Imagine Cup Gulf: Du and ITA Oman.

Will keep you posted on who will be moving on to the world wide finals in Poland this July.

Visual Studio Launch in Dubai – Code and a MOVIE

pooyadarugar — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:48:15 GMT

I’m happy to announce that we will be hosting our local launch of Visual Studio 2010 in Dubai on May 2nd, 2pm at the Cinestar Cinemas in Mall of the Emirates.

“Visual Studio 2010 premiering at a theatre near you! Join Microsoft and the local developer community at the Cinestar Cinemas Mall of the Emirates for exclusive presentations on Visual Studio 2010, fun giveaways, and a viewing of Iron Man 2!”

You read that right, learn about Visual Studio 2010 and stick around to see Iron Man 2. Both very exciting, not sure which is the bigger draw :) So PLEASE register online to get your ticket to the event. It’s completely free but you do need to register.

Agenda:

Keynote – Life Runs on Code
Web and Cloud Development with VS2010
Improving Developer/Tester Collaboration

So, Register, tell your friends about it and join us for a fun day at the cinema for code, cloud and popcorn. (oh and did I mention Register)