Arabian Cities in the 2008 Quality of Living Survey

Arabian Business reports about the results of the 2008 Quality of Living Survey that included 215 cities worldwide, the rankings are based on a point index of 39 ‘quality of living’ factors, including political stability, crime, censorship, limitations on personal freedom, medical supplies and services, infectious diseases and sewage.

Dubai came first among Arabian cities, followed by Abu Dhabi and Manama:
80: Dubai - UAE
88: Abu Dhabi - UAE
123: Manama - Bahrain
133: Kuwait - Kuwait
162: Jeddah - KSA
164: Riyadh - KSA
179: Beirut - Lebanon
208: Sanna - Yemen
212: Khartoum - Sudan
215: Baghdad - Iraq

Top 5 cities in the world:
1: Zurich - Switzerland
2: Vienna - Austria
3: Geneva - Switzerland
4: Vancouver - Canada
5: Auckland - New Zealand

Exciting job opportunities with Google in the Middle East!

The search engine giant - Google is hiring creative minds for its operations in the Middle East, such an opportunity should not slip away! If interested please contact nabilk@google.com

Google Engineering Site Director (Arabic Fluent) – Middle East

Google is looking for a highly technical, hands-on Engineering Site Director to drive Product and Technology initiatives for the Middle East/Arab World.
As the most senior engineer for Google in the region, the Engineering Site Director will be the face for Google’s engineering effort in the Arab World.

The Engineering Site Director will be responsible for the overall planning, execution and success of projects with both regional and global impact.
In addition to leading the engineering team or teams in the Arab markets, the Engineering Site Director will work closely with Google’s senior management team,
as well as local officials, universities and professional organizations.

Please note that engineering management at Google is technical, i.e., candidates are expected to have a strong track record of technical accomplishments in
addition to management accomplishments. Consequently a candidate must posses a strong and broad background in most aspects of Computer Science.
Candidates will be asked technical questions during your interviews.

Requirements:

* At least 10+ years of exceptional technical competence and accomplishment with a strong product development track record and continuing and enduring technical leadership throughout career
* Software background and large scale success developing web-based applications, ideally launched in the Arab market
* Entrepreneurial drive plus demonstrated ability to achieve goals in an innovative environment
* Relevant experience as hands-on manager of a large fast-paced dynamic engineering team
* Solid leadership skills and success in building a strong engineering team
* Strong project-management skills and proven history in product delivery
* Ability to operate and thrive in the face of ambiguity
* Can fit in well within an informal startup environment and quickly establish credibility with very capable engineers
* MS in Computer Science/Computer Engineering or PhD (preferred)

Please email a chronological resume to Nabil Khatib nabilk@google.com
Do not hesitate to share with anyone or any group that could be interested.

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Software Product Managers (Arabic Fluent) - Middle East

One of the many reasons Google consistently brings innovative, world-changing products to market is because of the collaborative work we do in Product Management. With eyes focused squarely on the future, our team works closely with creative and prolific engineers to help design and develop technologies that improve access to the  world’s information. We’re responsible for guiding products throughout the execution cycle, focusing specifically on analysing, positioning, packaging, promoting and tailoring  our solutions to all the markets where Google does business.

As a Product Manager at Google, you bridge the needs of our customers (users, advertisers and partners) and the creativity of our engineering teams. You combine outstanding  product vision with the hands-on skills to work with engineers and deliver new products and features quickly to markets across Africa. Google Product Managers come from a wide range of backgrounds: many have successfully run their own software/web companies whilst others have delivered successful products for large software companies. They all combine a great instinct for developing compelling products with a strong academic background and technical aptitude to work with a world class engineering team and the business sense to drive local product goals and strategies.

Responsibilities:

* Launch products
* Identify market opportunities and define product vision and strategy
* Understand customer needs and gather product requirements
* Develop new products and enhance existing products
* Engage closely with the engineering team to help determine the best technical implementation methods as well as a reasonable execution schedule

Requirements:
* Computer Science degree. Masters or PhD preferred
* MBA degree highly regarded
* End to end Product Management experience of software / web technologies
* Hands-on developing Internet products and technologies
* Entrepreneurial drive with appreciation of user-experience, business, and commercial issues
* Understanding of the Internet, Search Engine, and On-Line Advertising spaces

Please email a chronological resume to Nabil Khatib nabilk@google.com
Do not hesitate to share with anyone or any group that could be interested.

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Experienced Software Engineers (Arabic Fluent) - Middle East
Software Engineering Technical Leads/ Managers (Arabic Fluent) - Middle East

Software Engineering positions require a significant work history, experience developing web-based applications, expertise in data structures, algorithms, and complexity analysis, fluency in one or more of C, C++, Java, fluency in one of more of Shell, PHP, Perl or Python, solid working knowledge of Unix, preferably Linux, SQL and MySQL are a plus.  Applicants must have BA/BS in  Computer Science, MS or PhD (a plus).

These positions require exceptional programming skills, excellent algorithmic and analytical skills, and a strong aptitude for building high-performance, scalable computer systems. Our recent work encompasses a broad spectrum of computer science research areas, including: Large scale distributed systems design, Information retrieval, Natural language processing, machine learning and data mining, algorithms and data structures research and user interface research.

To get a clearer idea about your experience, please briefly reply to these questions and email back with your chronological resume:

* What are your strongest areas of expertise and interest?
* What are your preferred programming languages? Please rate yourself in them as (beginner, intermediate or advanced).
* If working, how much programming do you typically do during a week in your last 2 jobs? Please indicate in percentage (%) form.
* Please briefly describe your experience and knowledge of the technology market in the Arab World.

Please email a chronological resume to Nabil Khatib nabilk@google.com
Do not hesitate to share with anyone or any group that could be interested.

Arab singers who should just stop singing

The music in the Arab world is getting worst everyday with all the nudity and porn-oriented video clips, not to mention the meaningless crappy lyrics that we hear all the time. Personally I like to listen to Mohamed Abdouh, Kathem AlSaher, Sabah Fakhry, Wael Kfoury, Fadul Shaker, Majida AlRoumi, Nancy Ajram, Melhem Barakat, Marcel Khalifah, Shadi Jameel and Um Kalthoum.

I had a little chat with my brother about singers who should stop singing, to me on top of this list is George Wassouf, he is singing for almost 40 years and in the last few years his voice became like an old screwed-up truck, enough dude. Amr Diab has been in the field for almost 30 years, I feel that his songs are all the same, he is 50 years old but look at him, he looks like a teenager.

Two of my favorite singers should stop as well, Kathem AlSaher and Majida AlRoumi, both reached the peak and I guess lately they didn’t do quit well, so I believe both of them should retire now.

In Jordan Omar Abdallat is so supported, personally I hate his voice, there are few Jordanians who have better voice and very nice songs like Bashar AlSarhan, Ahmad Abndah and Tony Qattan, I believe if they found half the support given to Abdallat they will be stars.

The list:
- George Wassouf
- Amr Diab
- Nawal El Zoghbi (update)
- Mustafa Amar (update)
- Mohamed Fouad (update)
- Mohamed Muner (update)
- Aline Khalaf (update)
- Najwa Karam
- Ehab Tawfeq
- Juana Mallah
- Haifa Wahbi
- Ragheb Allamah
- Assi Hilani
- Shaban Abdul Raheem
- Samira Saeed
- Assalah
- Pascal Mishelani
- Jad Chueire
- Omar Abdallat
- Jawad AlAli
- Fares Karam
- Hameed AlShaiere
- Met3eb ElSaggar (update)
- Walid Tawfeq (update)
- Sabah Sabouha (update)
- Dana (update)
- Rami Ayyash (update)
- George AlRassi
- Abdallah Rouashid
- Jawad AlAli
- Hisham Abbas
- 4 Cats
- Hakeem

And of course the endless range of hookers who are trying to promote themselves through video clips, please please enough with the video clips and do your own porn and strip-tease shows, believe me you would be more popular.

Funny cartoon about advertising agencies and silly stupid clients requests

No work will make feel like a slave like working in advertising agencies, it’s really frustrating cause majority of clients are either dump or assholes, and most of the time both :) so no more advertising agencies for me :) cause you will have to do stupid stuff just because the greatest client ever asked for it.

Once I had an idea of a funny cartoon that will represent our pathetic situation with our beloved clients, then I asked a friend of mine, Mohammed AlShaer, to draw it, he did and he made the client looks like me :( here is the conversation between the client and the CS:

Client: Listen I’m having a baby girl, I want your copywriter to come up with at least 14 fluffy cute names for a girl.
Client Servicing: Yaay, sure we will!

G Strings are banned in Dubai!

Well, this should be interesting, I was laughing since I saw it and I don’t know if it’s fake, it’s an internal memo regarding the feminine dress code inside the Roads & Transport Authority of Dubai, it asks all female employees not to wear short and bright cloths, transparent dresses, tight jeans, and the what so called G-String, and most importantly not to touch their “sensitive parts” in front of customers :D

Is it really the Roads & Transport Authority or what!

G Strings are banned in Dubai!

The fourth cable is down, people it’s conspiracy

Someone is messing with the Middle East, ITP reports that a forth internet submarine cable was damaged earlier today, something is fishy here, how come 4 main internet cables get damaged for unknown reasons in less than a week?

Should we consider the conspiracy theory? Some people assume that ship anchors caused it, frankly I don’t buy this, this is a multi-million dollar business and it can’t be this easy to break.

We are talking about main cables that feed a whole region, you can’t just throw them in the sea unprotected knowing the size of the data being transferred through these cables, plus it’s so difficult and complicated to get them fixed in case of any damage.

I’m against describing it “conspiracy”, but it’s weird and I can’t find any explanation, first it’s only the Middle East, second some of those cables are new, and finally 4 cables down in less than a week, it’s weird.

If some ship anchor can damage a main submarine internet cable, what would happen in case of an earthquake or a hurricane, what would happen if we had a Tsunami in the Arabian Gulf?

via [ casualPR ]


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