Microsoft as usual confused with their naming strategies released the new “Windows 7“, which is literally the 7th version of the Windows OS. I am not a big fan of Microsoft. It feels like a technology that is enforced on you and we have got to accept it. Considering other options like Mac which is still pretty expensive here in Middle East and linux derivatives which are still not mature enough to handle all my applications, Microsoft is my only resolution.

Vista was a nightmare! (at least with my experience). I formatted my XP and upgraded to Vista only to find out error messages popping from here and there. Snail speed of processing and opening applications was very irritating. One month was more than enough for me to drop it and get my good XP back. In the end, an OS main function is to handle software on hardware. Failing this means dump it in the recycle bin!

This weeks I installed Windows 7 on one of my drive partitions. And something is of change here! (at least up till this very second I am writing this post!). Win7 might not look visually different than Vista, but the OS core shows good advancement.

After installation, Win7 update upgraded my PC hardware drivers to the latest compatible update. No probs with hardware so far! I installed several of the main apps I am using and almost all of them got working fine. The only exception was that of Google Earth, but I managed to get the solution online. Speed-wise, its performing well.

Apparently, Win7 is like apologizing for what Vista screwed up earlier. I think I will give it a trial for few more days, to confirm its stability and make sure no problems pop up anywhere before upgrading my whole PC. Further, by next year WinXP will be an old technology, and people shall seriously consider upgrading.

Here is a compensation, I designed this desktop wallpaper showing October’s calendar in a new way. I hope its readable!

Also featured on Smashing Magazine’s Octobers Wallpaper selections as October Canvas. Hope you like it.

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(’Click’ to preview, ‘Right-click -> Save Link as’ to save)

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Exclusive Gallery

With the web now flooding with many application frameworks, the process of software programming and development is becoming easier and faster. One of the most interesting I have passed into lately, the CakePHP framework. An open source rapid development framework for PHP using the famous MVC (model-view-controller) pattern. It provides the tools and helpers that can save you time without going deep into the application coding. Developing with CakePHP really sounds like a piece of cake!

As an assessment of any software I pass into, I usually check the projects that have been developed based on it.  And CakePHP shows a remarkable flexibility with their long list of websites including community websites, newspapers & online stores built on it.

A good start after installing and setting up the framework on your server, is this simple tutorial to create a blog. It took me about 10 minutes to build the whole thing up! Amazing! A blog you can view, add, edit and delete posts writing the minimal code.

Searching online, I found good resources for tutorials on expanding the functionality of CakePHP applications. The following is a list of some you will find very useful:

• The Manual (A must for starters)
• MissPHP
• IBM Technical Library (Detailed set of 5 tutorials)
• Actionshrimp (On using the Bake console)

Another interesting competitor zend framework, which has bigger community and was born earlier than CakePHP provides a similar experience. I shall also give it a try. The Joobsbox project, I worked on earlier, was built on zend. You can check a comparison list of known PHP frameworks here.

Give it a try. Its nice and simple.

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Love this song!

As promised earlier, I have been working on a theme project for Joobsbox.

I thought of a smarter way to represent the job postings. Instead of the traditional list method showing each post on a single line, I had the idea of a small business card showing the job details with mini cute icons.

In the Job Post details page, information is shown in an elegant and clear way.

Information and error messages also have been spiced a bit.

This is my first experience with theme design for Joobsbox. I will be happy to hear some comments regarding the design or if any changes that will make it better looking.

Download Theme >>

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I came across this nice small app, JoobsBox, an open source job board software. Its still in an early stage, but then I came across a very similar replica jobberBase which appears to be much more developed considering the active community.

Anyway, I wanted to contribute something to the project and I almost completed the Arabic translation same day . Its hosted on Launchpad, another nice online tool for people and teams to collaborate on projects.

Its my first arabization project, but it was simple and fun. Next step, I am excited about designing a theme. Will keep you updated once it’s ready.