El Koshary Today: Satirical News Website Built with Drupal

After months of hard work and creative time-wasting techniques, Egypt’s first online satirical news source is finally here. El Koshary Today is a website built with Drupal CMS that brings the latest fictitious stories from Egypt and around the globe.

El Koshary Today logo

It is built to be light-weight, simple yet sleek. The most important aspect of the website is the content itself, therefore, any unneeded elements would inevitably backfire as the audience are searching for a pleasant experience as they browse the dynamic content from the different subject areas.

Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy

Inspired by Koshary, the main traditional dish that gains its popularity from it’s economical value, yet strong and engaging taste, the writers aim at springing off what is typically Egyptian and reaching out to the world. It is an approach to analyze and constructively criticize the difference aspects of the culture that gave birth to the revolutionary Koshary. You can read more at the Koshary Philosophy page.

EKT is built on the 960 Grid System framework that significantly facilitates the creation of a base/skeleton for your website. Using the traditional 12-column grid, the homepage is divided into three columns to display a lot of content, without sacrificing the simplicity of the layout and the usability aspect. The inner pages however, are two columns only (widening the right sidebar after removing the left one) to give more prominence to the main column with the article text, and to use the right sidebar to bring the the most read or any other promoted material.

Drupal was the ideal content management system for this particular project. On the one hand, using powerful modules such as Views (with the revolutionary Semantic Views) gives you complete control of where and how the content appears. One problem might be the lack of control as far as the unnecessary markup that is inevitably added to the code. Semantic Views significantly reduces the excessive code that gets in the way, and makes a substantial improvement to the arguably inefficient approach to templating in Drupal.

Drupal: Amazing CMS

Aside from the markup issue, and the naturally aggressive image caching that could be frustrating at times, getting Drupal to do exactly as required was a breeze. One of the most impressive features is the ability to specifically customize with the different users with different roles can see and do. As a result, the editors and contributors never come across any options they will not be using, and adding/maintaining the content is a fast and easy process, with no technical knowledge required. The ability to make revisions and leave comments associated with each revision, with the option of reverting to older version, is yet another fascinating functionality as part of the open source CMS.

El Koshary Today's interface

The result is a humorous website with fresh content displayed via an elegant interface using an efficient back-end built on an organized, cross-browser compatible framework. El Koshary Today is Egypt’s first satirical online news source, and it yet another example of the endless possibilities for the members of the web, thanks by large to the open-source technologies, and of course, the beautiful internet.

You can visit http://elkoshary.com, become a fan via the Facebook page, or follow on Twitter @elkoshary

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The Living Hell of Dealing with Clients

This is a hilarious video that overly-exaggerates the never-ending torture that comes from dealing with many of the clients when freelancing. Regardless of whether you’re a graphic designer, web designer/developer or multimedia designer, the start of the road to independent freelancing starts off very tough indeed.

Excuse the foul language, although it does make it even funnier!

When you decide to take on freelancing, even part time, with a vision of doing it exclusively and professionally down the road, you have to go through a test where only the fittest survive. The typical clients that you might start up with will always have the following characteristics:

• Stingy: They’ll splash $500 on the latest cologne, but design should be free
• Ignorant: No clue as to what the freelancer goes through, and how the process works
• Demanding: Want EVERYTHING, ASAP
• Underestimating: It’s easy, it’s just that they chose to take on real jobs, otherwise they would’ve been the best designers ever
• Unappreciative: Your job is to design, and be thankful that I’m paying you for such an easy and meaningless job
• Completely lost: No clue what they want, and cannot accept that vague idea cannot magically combine to create the perfect tangible product

As you become more and more professional, and your hourly rate rises as you gain experience, the majority of these characteristics begin to diminish. However, no matter how professional and experienced you are, you will always be dealing with client who are completely lost and have no clue as to what they want or how it could possibly be achieved.

But it’s our job, and we love it.

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Can You Compete with Google Search?

This is a short video by CollegeHumor that uses sarcasm to point out the possible lack of competition for the Google search engine:

Microsoft launched Bing in an attempt to make life difficult for Google. Not surprisingly, it is not working out so well, at least not at the moment. The main problem is that the search engine boom has been almost exclusively handed to Google, and they wasted no time in taking advantage. In fact, the word “search” has seemed to have disappeared from the English/Tech language, and users worldwide are referring to the daily process as “Googling”. That results in a clear advantage in Google’s favor leaving very little room for maneuver, especially with the regular users’ lack of interest in exploring the different options -- people just want to get to what they’re looking for in the quickest and easiest manner. Consequently, you might come across those who advocate the phrase “I love Google!”, as oppose to “I love the Internet”, giving credit to the technology giants for the actual content offered via the Web, not just the process of finding it.

Filtering the huge majority of search queries via a single search engine can be very dangerous, as it facilitates the process of censorship. Potentially, Google could have the power of controlling what is crawled and visible in the results, and what stay in the dark. Either way, as users of the information super highway, we can always benefit from more competition. Let’s hope the power remains where it belongs: With the people.

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Violence In Computer Games

Yet another hilarious video by the Onion News Network. This time, the issue at hand is violence in games: Are Violent Video Games Preparing Kids For The Apocalypse?

Besides the fact that it is rather humorous, there are a couple of points that are raised, albeit indirectly, from the intellectual “debate”:

1. The world of science fiction in games is extremely creative. It is not easy to create characters and story lines that attract fanatics to come on board. However, does more creativity require increased violence? Can we not enjoy entertaining, strategic games without violence?
2. The fiction depicted in the main stream games is always at least remotely related to reality. In many cases it’s a spin-off from what we see around us in the world today. Does that in turn mean that violence in games is merely an exaggeration of real life? If not, then why is that particular aspect blown out of proportion?
3. With the vast improvements in Computer Graphics and  3d rendering, violent effects are more and more striking. In a way, violence in games is increasing. Is there a limit? Or will is eventually settle, and perhaps even wane?

It is very difficult to measure the effect of violence in games on the people who are active players. Not only because it is not tangible, but also because the advancements are so fast, that we cannot even compare generations because of the huge differences. Therefore, we are mainly left with subjective opinions. One aspect that the huge majority would agree on is that, even if it is not harmful, violent games are in not way benefiting the up and coming generations of the “human race”.

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Possible Solution To Forwarded Emails

Although forwarding seems like a trend from the 90s, there is still a large crowd that constantly sends irrelevant, junk email to all names in the address book. Everyone share’s the troubling situation, and getting out of it is not as easy as one would hope for. Some people have email addresses that are specifically for receiving waste-of-time emails, but then you are left with the problem of not knowing who’s who in the constant-forwarding game. Besides, having more email accounts is incredibly inefficient – everything should be centralized.

The Stop Forwarding Letter

The people at StopForwarding.Us came up with the clever idea of offering the service of sending an anonymous email politely asking the abuser to stop sending chain letters and insignificant forwards. They do so by sending a carefully-worded email named after the person of your choosing politely asking him or her to refrain from the irritating act. That should successfully send the message across, without causing any awkwardness or drama.

Apart from the fact that it is quite humorous and entertaining, it is yet another example of the how the users of the internet are always offered new services for free thanks to the large-scale demand on one end, and the creativity of those who strive for it on the other.

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Series: The Website Is Down

Very rarely will you come across videos that are as hilarious, informative and intriguing as this:

The Website Is Down is a free online video series created by technology geeks who are exceptionally good at what they do. With three episodes under their belt already, these guys have deservedly won a handful of awards. This one is the first episode from the point of view of the IT specialist, and there are a number of vital conclusions to draw from this:

• IT technicians are exceptional at multi-tasking, and all they are after is a piece of mind
• In any given company, every non-IT employee thinks that he or she is an expert and know how problems are solved
• Communication is always a miserable failure. No one has any clue what he or she is supposed to do, and how to relay the information
• Just because you are the person who implements decisions, does not mean that you are responsible for taking them. It’s the vicious cycle of all companies
• What goes on behind the scenes in the server room is nowhere near what is advertised

I personally think that the most important aspect of the video is the demonstration of the significantly large technological gap between the specialists and the regular users. It is cause for concern as fewer “Web Dude’s” possess enough patience to help the users get on their feet, and it’s only getting worse.

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The Fight Against Spam

It’s a sad but true story that as we witness technological developments, spammers become advance and reach new levels to infiltrate our mail boxes. It is by far one of the most frustrating aspects of the online experience, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it will be ending anytime soon.

Spamming started back in 1978 on the network of the time, ARPANET, when an email was sent to 600 address. But it started operating on a massive level in 1994, right around when millions of users were signing up for new email accounts and getting introduced to using the Internet. Today it is estimated that there are more than 100 billion spam messages every single day.

The following is a hilarious report by the Onion News Network on spam:

The best solution so far that has been developed to hold off spam is the Captcha. Basically, by having random numbers and letters covered with scribbles keeps the spammers away. However, it might not be the best solution out there, as it means that many humans are having trouble passing the test. From that perspective, it is clear that spammers are ahead in the battle, even if it is somewhat coincidental. The fact that millions of Internet users repeatedly fail to pass the captcha hurdle means that the spammers have successfully prevented the rest from the harmonious, smooth internet experience.

In order defeat the spammers, there needs to be a test that is incredibly easy for humans, and impossible for spammers. There have been some creative works as of late that will hopefully catch on in the near future. One of which is the Ajax Fancy Captcha:

The Ajax Fancy Captcha method

Not only is it easy, but it is also intuitive. This means that it only requires a few seconds and you won’t break a sweat, while it blocks off those attempting to spam. Seems like the ideal solution, and I’m looking forward to seeing it implemented everywhere on the web.

There’s no doubt that spammers will continue to grow and develop, but the strength of the community of the free and safe internet is far superior. And while we will always be facing periods when spammers have catch up, it will always be followed by another where users carry on their everyday lives without the slightest of worries.

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Apple Introduces MacBook Wheel

A hilarious video by The Onion taking a humorous approach to Apple’s philosophy:

While the report is completely fictitious, there are a number of valid points made (through exaggerating):

• Apple are always desperate to be “innovative” in anyway, to the point of over-looking what the consumer is actually looking for
• In  many cases, the company looks to sell features as “must-haves”, and people learn to like it
• They make “revolutionary” announcements (like that of the iPhone), when the release is always months and months later
• The most important part of owning a Mac or an Apple product, is to proudly show it to everyone
• They are outrageously over-priced. Very few people can argue that what you pay for Apple products is completely nonsensical

Therefore, even though the video’s there to make you laugh, I think the Onion News Network makes valid arguments that is important for us, the consumers, to discuss and be aware of.

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Microsoft “Table”

The Microsoft Surface has been announced for a while now, but this video takes a sarcastic approach to the same advertisement Microsoft had used to market their new product. Besides the fact that it is hilarious, it’s also interesting to see how some new “innovations” do not always go hand-in-hand with users’ demands, but rather dictate what the user wants/needs:

It is an example of how many companies forget to look for what the user needs, as appose to coming up with features that can eventually be sold as a “must-have”.

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