:: ممل آمریکایی ::

Sunshine in Seattle

2010-07-09T14:29:00.003-04:00

Finally there is sunshine and 90 degrees in Seattle. The whole Relevance team is going out to Lake Sammamish Park for the team morale event. Lying by the beach and getting as much Vitamin D. as I can for now :)

Snow's Comin :)

2009-12-14T04:02:00.002-05:00

driving east on the highway 90 from Bellevue to Issaquah, I saw couple of snow flakes that hit my windshield this morning. I have most of my DC friends coming over to Seattle (for Christmas) for Skiing in mt Baker.

I should say from what I have heard, Baker had an amazing opening this season, but then all of a sudden it started becoming all sunny and warm and crappy here in Seattle; no more snow!

Well, that would really suck to have 20 of your buddies drive up all the way to Baker for Christmas and then get shitty slush instead of the fresh powder. So as soon as I saw the flakes coming down this morning, I checked Baker's snow condition on my cellphone and there it was :) 3" of fresh pow pow!

fingers crossed for the rest of the week, waiting for an amazing ski trip ....

25' F in Seattle

2009-12-09T17:53:00.002-05:00

Driving to Redmond campus this morning, it was 25' F. That is in the parking garage!!!!! At least its sunny outside :) it would be even better if we it was snowing in Mt. Baker .... 16 days and counting

PhD Comic Christmas Song ..... :)

2009-12-09T03:08:00.001-05:00

Microsoft Office15

2009-12-09T02:54:00.002-05:00

so as we get closer and closer to the Office 14 release, today we had an offsite brainstorming session to comeup with new ideas for the next Office wave (Office 15)! It was my first offsite and i have to say at the end of the day the we filled the walls across the hall with good (and crazy ;) ) ideas written on post it cards.

Some were totally cool ( and really ambitious at the same time) and some were plain out nerdy stuff. The process it self was really fun though, each team did it differently. My team (Office Web Apps) broke out into themes and each theme came up with as many ideas as they could. Ideas were then affined into clusters and sorted based on the Easy --> Hard and Low Value to High value.

We left the room (after about 6 hours) with big posters filled the ideas that got the highest number of votes from the team. Those if course will not be the exact set of features that we will implement for Office 15, they will be sort of guidance to write the Office 15 planning document.

Khomeini's Ghost, A Book by Con Coughlin

2009-03-04T00:44:00.005-05:00

Diane Rehm had Con Coughlin as the spacial guest to her daily show on NPR. Coughlin wrote a new book about the life and legacy of ayatollah Khomeini. The book is titled: "Khomeini's Ghost".

He is an executive editor of Daily Telegraph in London.

"Khomeini's Ghost is the account of how an impoverished young student from a remote area of southern Iran became the leader of one of the most dramatic upheavals of the modern age, and how his radical Islamic philosophy now is at the heart of the current conflict between Iran and the West. Con Coughlin draws on a wide variety of Iranian sources, including religious figures who knew and worked with Khomeini both in exile and in power."

He calls us confrontational, people who think very high of themselves! and are absolutely trying to be superpower in the region and are not willing to give that up at all.

P.S: For a person who claims to be an expert in Iranian politics and has written a book on the subject, it is kind of funny that he calls our president: "Ahmadi JEHAD " :))))

Yes or No!

2009-02-25T05:28:00.003-05:00

THE RULES:
1. You can ONLY answer Yes or No!
2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you and Asks!

Now, here's what you're supposed to do... And please do not spoil the Fun. Copy and paste this into your notes , delete my answers and type in your answers. Then see what happens.

Kissed any one of your facebook friends? Yes
Been arrested? Yes
Kissed someone you didn't like? Yes
Slept in until 5 PM? Yes
Fallen asleep at work/school? Yes
Held a snake? Yes
Ran a red light? Yes
Been suspended from school? Yes
Totaled your car/motorbike in an accident? Yes
Been fired from a job? Yes
Sang karaoke? Yes
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Yes
Kissed in the rain? Yes
Sang in the shower? Yes
Sat on a rooftop? Yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? Yes
Broken a bone? Yes
Shaved your head? Yes :))
Passed out from drinking? Yes!
Played a prank on someone? Yes
Felt like killing someone? Yes! :)
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? Yes
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? Yes
Been in a band? Yes
Shot a gun? Yes
Tripped on mushrooms? No
Donated Blood? Yes
Eaten alligator meat? No
Eaten cheesecake? Yes
Still love someone you shouldn't? Yes
Think about the future? Yes
Believe in Love ? Yes
Sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes
Eaten something you thought you never would? Yes
Drank something you knew you shouldn't? Yes
Eaten something you didn't know what it was? Yes
Lived on a Beach for more than a week? Yes
Purchased something for yourself to wear that cost more than $200? Yes
Driven until you couldn't drive any further? Yes
Worked more than 2 jobs simultaneously? Yes
Taken a train across an international border? Yes
Climbed a mountain? Yes
Run until you couldn't run another step? Yes
Forgotten your own birthday? No
Gained or lost over 40 lbs in a single year? No
Found $5 or more in public? Yes
Won more than $10 at Slots? Yes
Randomly paid for someone else's toll or entrance fee? No
Gotten a free hotel room in a gambling hotel? Yes
Been healthy and slept more than 12 hrs? Yes
Driven or ridden in an official race car? Yes
Been in the presence of a human birth? No
Learned how to use Nun chucks? Yes
Been in a race of 5K or more? Yes
Won something you wanted? Yes
Used a tax return frivolously? Yes
Been published? Yes
Made a drum? No
Hit the bulls eye with a bow and arrow? No
Walked barefoot in a stream? Yes
Lost your cool in public? Yes
Lost your passport? No
Received a massage of more than one hour? Yes
Meditated for more than 15 minutes? Yes
Taken only photographs, left only footprints in an environment you know is in danger of being overtaken by humanity? Yes

Four Rules of Manhood

2009-02-22T18:03:00.002-05:00

Ernest Hemingway's four rules of manhood:

"Plant a tree, fight a bull, write a book, have a son!"

Kish Underground City

2009-02-06T13:50:00.001-05:00

Someone sent this link around in our internal distribution list. It is well worth watching:

Kish Underground City

Immigration Nightmare, GOD Bless H1B

2009-02-05T12:55:00.004-05:00

If the prophets would have come during thees modern times, it would have been the craziest thing ever to see them at the immigration lines!

- Excuse me sir, can I see your passport please?
- How dare you question the son of God!

- Yeah, whatever, Passport please!

- I will forgive you my son!
- yeah and I will drag your ass straight to jail! so do you have a passport or not, there are 200 people behind you in line!

Everyone is freaked out about the immigration problems rising from the recent layoffs! DOL has stopped issuing the Certificate of Labour for green card seekers and long story short, we are in DEEP BANDINI! ;) (as Peter Bock would always put it! )

Sitting with me here, there are hundreds of people who just joined the company and have no clue what is going to happen to them if they get fired or if their immigration paperwork is put on a halt.

What I just learned:

There are some nice guys famously known as ICE , Immigration and Customs Enforcement ;) which you would do your best by all means to avoid chatting with them :)
There is a separate visa category for Chile or Singapore citizens! (why?)
Canadians and Mexicans are sometimes even more screwed when it comes to non-immigrant visas!
When people are getting fired, how do you go to DOl and tell them: Hey I have this guys from such and such country, and I want to hire him, and there is no american citizen qualified and willing to do this job! ;) good luck!
Just found out that some Visa holders where also laid off! Oh God !:(

Life goes on in Tehran

2008-12-24T14:55:00.005-05:00

Couple of years ago I found a website called TEHRAN24 which very quickly became an obsession of many Iranians who are living abroad and haven't been back for a while. There was nothing special about the pictures that were posted on the site, they were just pictures of ordinary people and different neighborhoods on Tehran (and later other cities of Iran) and that was exactly the reason the site attracted a huge traffic of visitors.

Today,I found another one! This one is called "The Life Goes on in Tehran" and on the first page it declares the following as its mission statement:

Mission Statement: To show that regardless of what any president would have you imagine, despite what any media outlet would have you believe, life goes on in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran.

A big difference between this one and tehran24.com in the photographer's notes for each picture which makes it interesting.

یلدا

2008-12-20T13:48:00.001-05:00

Shab-e Yaldā (Persian: یلدا) or Shab-e Chelleh (Persian: شب چله) is an Iranian festival originally celebrated on the Northern Hemisphere's longest night of the year, that is, on the eve of the Winter Solstice.
The 13th century Iranian poet Sa'di wrote in his Bustan: "The true morning will not come, until the Yalda Night is gone". Following the Iranian calendar reform of 1925, which pegged some seasonal events to specific days of the calendar, Yalda came to be celebrated on the night before and including the first day of the tenth month (Dey). Subject to seasonal drift, this day may sometimes fall a day before or a day after the actual Winter Solstice.
Following the fall of the Sassanid Empire and the subsequent rise of Islam, the religious significance of the event was lost, and like other Zoroastrian festivals Yalda became a social occasion when family and close friends would get together. Nonetheless, the obligatory serving of fresh fruit during mid-winter is reminiscent of the ancient customs of invoking the divinities to request protection of the winter crop.
Yalda today
Families continue to hold traditional gatherings on YaldaIranian radio and television offer special programmes on that night of Yalda.
Watermelons are placed on the Korsi, a traditional piece of furniture similar to a very short table, around which the family sit on the ground. On it, a blanket made of wool filling is thrown, people leave their legs under the blanket. Inside the korsi, heat is generated by means of coal, electricity or gas heaters.
Youth hold Yalda parties.

كسي كه مثل هيچكس نيست

2008-12-19T22:36:00.002-05:00

كسي كه مثل هيچكس نيست

من خواب ديده ام كه كسي مي آيد
من خواب يك ستاره ي قرمز ديده ام
و پلك چشمم هي ميپرد
و كفشهايم هي جفت ميشوند
و كور شوم
اگر دروغ بگويم
من خواب آن ستاره قرمز را
وقتي كه خواب نبودم ديده ام
كسي مي آيد
كسي مي آيد
كسي ديگر
كسي بهتر
كسي كه مثل هيچكس نيست،
مثل پدر نيست،
مثل انسي نيست،
مثل يحيي نيست،
مثل مادر نيست
و مثل آنكسيست كه بايد باشد
و قدش از درخت هاي خانه ي معمار هم بلندتر است
و صورتش
از صورت امام زمان هم روشنتر
و از برادر سيد جواد هم
كه رفته است
و رخت پاسباني پوشيده است نمي ترسد
و از خود سيد جواد هم كه تمام اتاقهاي منزل ما مال اوست نميترسد
و اسمش آنچنانكه مادر
در اول نماز و در آخر نماز صدايش ميكند
يا قاضي القضات است
يا حاجت الحاجات است
و ميتواند
تمام حرف هاي سخت كتاب كلاس سوم را
با چشم هاي بسته بخواند
و ميتواند حتي هزار را
بي آنكه كم بياورد از روي بيست ميليون بردارد
و ميتواند از مغازه ي سيد جواد،
‌ هر چقدر كه لازم دارد ، جنس نسيه بگيرد
و ميتواند كاري كند كه لامپ الله
كه سبز بود: مثل صبح سحر سبز بود
دوباره روي آسمان مسجد مفتاحيان روشن شود

آخ
چقدر روشني خوبست
چقدر روشني خوبست
و من چقدر دلم ميخواهد
كه يحيي
يك چار چرخه داشته باشد
و يك چراغ زنبوري
و من چقدر دلم ميخواهد
كه روي چارچرخه ي يحيي ميان هندوانه ها و خربزه ها بنشينم
و دور ميدان محمديه بچرخم
آخ
چقدر دور ميدان چرخيدن خوبست
چقدر روي پشت بام خوابيدن خوبست
چقدر باغ ملي رفتن خوبست
چقدر مزه ي پپسي خوبست
چقدر سينماي فردين خوبست
و من چقدر از همه ي چيزهاي خوب خوشم مي آيد
و من چقدر دلم ميخواهد
كه گيس دختر سيد جواد را بكشم

چرا من اينهمه كوچك هستم
كه در خيابانها گم ميشوم
چرا پدر كه اينهمه كوچك نيست
و در خيابانها هم گم نميشود
كاري نميكند كه آنكسي كه بخواب من آمده ست،
روز آمدنش را جلو بياندازد
و مردم محله كشتارگاه
كه خاك باغچه شان هم خونيست
و آب حوض هاشان هم خونيست
و تخت كفش هاشان هم خونيست
چرا كاري نمي كنند
چرا كاري نمي كنند

چقدر آفتاب زمستان تنبل است

من پله هاي پشت بام را جارو كرده ام
و شيشه هاي پنجره را هم شسته ام
چرا پدر فقط بايد
در خواب ، خواب ببيند

من پله هاي پشت بام را جارو كرده ام
و شيشه هاي پنجره را هم شسته ام

كسي مي آيد
كسي مي آيد
كسي كه در دلش با ماست،
در نفسش با ماست،
در صدايش با ماست

كسي كه آمدنش را
نميشود گرفت
و دستبند زد و به زندان انداخت
كسي كه زير رختهاي كهنه ي يحيي بچه كرده است
و روز به روز
بزرگ ميشود ، بزرگتر ميشود
كسي از باران ، از صداي شرشر باران ، از ميان پچ و پچ گلهاي اطلسي
كسي از آسمان توپخانه در شب آتش بازي مي آيد
و سفره را مياندازد
و نان را قسمت ميكند
و پپسي را قسمت ميكند
و باغ ملي را قسمت ميكند
و شربت سياه سرفه را قسمت ميكند
و روز اسم نويسي را قسمت ميكند
و نمره ي مريضخانه را قسمت ميكند
و چكمه هاي لاستيكي را قسمت ميكند
و سينماي فردين را قسمت ميكند
و رخت هاي دختر سيد جواد را قسمت ميكند
و هر چه را كه باد كرده باشد قسمت ميكند
و سهم ما را هم ميدهد
من خواب ديده ام

فرخزاد

Life in Seattle

2008-12-18T02:15:00.003-05:00

well in addition to the fact that it is cold as *** (record breaking low tempretures in the past 20 years! just my kind of luck ;) ) it is a beautiful city. I haven't seen that much of the city yet, since I'm either at work or gym or sleeping, but I will, right after I move to my own place I will ! :)

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

2008-08-03T11:48:00.002-04:00

He is not with us anymore, but millions of people have watched his Last Lecture at CMU with tears and laugh, including myself!

Towards Digital Mathematics Library

2008-07-21T01:59:00.002-04:00

I have a paper in the DML 2008 which is going to be held in University of Birmingham, UK in July 2008. The paper is on Mathematical Information Retrieval and is about using handwriting to create math queries for an automated fine-grain math-aware search engine.

"Lexical Error Compensation in Handwritten-based Mathematical Information Retrieval"
Seyed Ali Ahmadi (George Washington University, United States)
Abdou Youssef (George Washington University, United States)

The Nature News has an article about the conference:

(Nature 454, 263 (2008) | doi:10.1038/454263b)
You may add comments and discuss when registered on Nature.com

Photoshop and Politics

2008-07-21T01:55:00.003-04:00

This is an interesting article in NYT about the airbrushed photos of Iranian Missile tests, which were published all over the news couple of days ago.

I happen to agree with the author regarding the outcome of the photos: more publicity for Iran. Good or bad one thing is certain, they got the picture of their missiles on every single newspaper and media channel in the world. Now that's good publicity!

Rick Steves’ travels in Iran

2008-06-30T09:22:00.000-04:00

TV and radio travel host Rick Steves is best known for his sojourns in Europe. But recently, Rick Steves took his film crew to Iran. Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with him about his experiences there.

Prisoners Puzzle!

2008-05-01T13:22:00.002-04:00

I came across this puzzle couple days ago and I couldn't do anything else until I found a solution. Let me know if you find one!

The warden meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.

"In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled A and B, each of which can be in either the 'on' or the 'off' position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.

"After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must move one, but only one of the switches. He can't move both but he can't move none either. Then he'll be led back to his cell."

"No one else will enter the switch room until I lead the next prisoner there, and he'll be instructed to do the same thing. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back.

"But, given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room as many times as everyone else. At any time anyone of you may declare to me, 'We have all visited the switch room.' and be 100% sure.

"If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will be fed to the alligators."

What is the strategy they come up with so that they can be free?

ترنج

2008-03-11T16:04:00.001-04:00

Every now and then someone publishes a unique work which is well worth listening; and of course it immediately gets banned in IRAN! Toranj is a combination of Iranian traditional instruments (and form of voice) with Mohsen Namjoo's extraordinary improvisations and vocal techniques. He, of course, is not allowed to perform live in Iran anymore !!! what a shame!! One would actually think that they make it easier for him to get more recognition by banning his work; everyone gets curious to find out why it was banned!!!! :)

Well, if you haven't heard it already , I just uploaded the whole album on my own server. click on the link and enjoy: (zolf, Talkhi Nakonad and Toranj are my favorite tracks)

http://www.alia.ir/i/Uploads/Toranj.zip

[I am not a big fan of pirating music from independent Iranian musicians inside Iran which have no other means of support, [I'm not talking about BIA2MUSIC] but since his work is banned and I like you guys to hear it, I guess I'm not hurting him more than I'm spreading his talent. I actually tried to buy his CD, but sadly enough he has stated that those who are publishing his CD are not paying him any royalty for his work!! What is wrong with us people?!!]

If you liked it, help spread the word, I believe that's what matters most to a musician in his situation.

Valentine's Special!

2008-02-15T12:23:00.004-05:00

"No one sends you flowers when you are crazy!" (PostSecret.com)

Postsecret: A Valentine Video

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Hell's Temperature Explained by Chemistry Student

2008-01-03T16:22:00.001-05:00

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so well addressed that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their hypotheses using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time, so we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can conclude that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperatur and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. This implies two possible conclusions:

If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept a postulate offered by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and if we take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then conclusion 2 must be true; Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.

A corollary of this conclusion is that since Hell has frozen over, it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore extinct. This leaves only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being, explaining why last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God, Oh my God!"

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

Laws of Ideas

2007-11-16T12:59:00.000-05:00

If you notice from my side bar links, I have stated a new weblog project under the name of "Laws of Ideas" about the Intellectual Property issues specially in the domain of Computer Science.

The IP world is rapidly changing and more countries are recognizing how immensely Intellectual Property can affect foreign and national investment in their busniesses.

As a computer scientist, I will write my own thoughts and arguments regarding the current issues and hope I can get interesting comments as well.

My country, IRAN, unfortunately is way behind other developing countries in Intellectual Property Protection and no surprise that is paying a huge price for that matter. Political sanctions and agendas aside, its the lack of protection for intellectual property that is preventing them from investing in IRAN.

I strongly believe that IRAN can be even ahead of INDIA in IT industry; but as long as Software piracy is going forward without any limitations from the government, IRAN will not be foreign inverters' first choice. Dubai with it's internet and Media city is a perfect example.

Me on "Rate My Professor.com"

2007-11-16T12:54:00.000-05:00

My students sometimes leave funny comments about me on "ratemyprofessor.com".

Look at this one:

04/12/2005 - really helpful TA. he was much better than this stupid Shaban (the main instructor of the course).Ali even gets excited about what he is teaching. New pair of shoes and new perfume every week!

or this one:

05/27/2007 - i can understand why people like him because generally hes a cool dude, but just know that he plays favorites and can be extremely obnoxious, condescending and sarcastic if you are lost and looking for help, esp at the beginning of the semester.

now I know I am cool! ;) but when did I play favorites? come on! if you read the rest of the comments, it clearly shows that is not the case at all! and I really don't think it is a good idea to insult any of your teachers in school when you are commenting about their TAs no matter how much you dislike them.

Where is IRAN?

2007-11-13T16:08:00.000-05:00

I remember watching "Jay Walking" in NBC's tonight show with Jay Leno when he goes to streets of LA and asks people the most obvious and basic questions and the answers are just unbelievably garbage!!

Kourosh sent me this link, It is nothing but shame! Iranians who claim everyday that we are the greatest nation on earth with such and such history and civilization, can't even find their mother land on a map!