I would like to thank all those that have had the patience to look for what I have to say for so long... I said a few days, well it took over a month, and what I will say is only a fraction of what, only a month ago, I though I could say as only personal things are my own decision...

I already warned that anything professional would be on my msdn blog, and it won't be still many days/weeks that I can speak about anything happening on the platform or  server for process stuff...

There are yet big news on the personal side:

There are encounters that change the way we think about life. there are encounters that even change our lives. Yet there aren't so many encounters that change both our life and our perception about life... encounters that one feels in the depth of his guts that nothing will ever be the same...

As much as I used to love writing, I have not felt I needed to say anything except what I whispered into her ears... As much as I always was available for my friends, I only cared about what she felt...

To cut a long story short, I am feeling legendary love, and think (when my ego is not under control)  that we (see next paragraph) are part of the circle of Cleopatra and Antonio, Antar and Abla,, Qais and Leila,  Romeo and Juliet.... etc. Time evolves, and we don't need a drama to boost our feelings...

I never felt this way, although I had extremely strong feeling for friends (with or w/o benefits) before and still do. I had teenage love(s) (I won't specify numbers, sorry), and even simulacres of the ideal love. I would die anyday to preserve one of my real close friend's life. I do have the most amazing kind of love, one that can never be changed or topped : My love for Arwa, the most intelligent and beautiful girl in the world, my daughter. But I still forgot my friends since I met her. I would not only die for her, I litterally can't live a day without her...

In three (extensible) words, I love Nadia, and she is my wife.

That's all I can say for now.

2/22/2007 5:26:08 AM UTC    Comments [3] 

I have disappeared for a while, both on the blog and physically with my friends... I have a few surprises for everyone... keep watching in the next few days.

1/15/2007 7:06:57 PM UTC    Comments [4] 

New girlfriend, new position, visiting new countries, new car, new phone, new style... All in the last few weeks !

Off course all the old rhythm of change and travel is still there...

Who said last year was incredible ?

10/4/2006 5:27:32 PM UTC    Comments [1] 

Kimberly never ceases to amaze me. How geekier can one get. Writing a stored proc on the plane is a "normal" thing to do, but when the stored proc gets data from the database, formats an HTML message and sends it to thousands of subscribers from her laptop on the plane...

6/24/2006 5:21:39 AM UTC    Comments [2] 

Congratulations Andrew, Steven and Bill...

5/31/2006 12:24:18 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

I know many of you only come here to get some inetresting technology information...

From now on, I have decided to separate whatever I say about techonology (which has to somewhat conform with my employer official views) at http://blogs.msdn.com/malek/default.aspx  (wont start on that for few days yet) and what I say about my own life (which, in return, only concern me, and has no implication on my employer what so ever).

I have kept everytging I had said in the past (in my original www.malekkemmou.ma blog) here as I still have not changed and I would, personnally, not implicating my employer, defend anything and everything I ever said (including recognizing errors of the past, which I recon have happened some times)...

I have hundereds of pages of "creative writing" that have not yet been published, as well as general opinions on politics, social ideals and other genral topics.  off course there will be quite a bit of semi-private / cryptic posts as well, adressed mostly to those who know more about the details of my life.

I will start posting in here and on my other blog very soon, so stay tuned...

For 400 years, you name will still be anywhere I go, and shiny will be every one of my lives with you...

5/31/2006 2:49:39 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Since the day my mom passed away, I had shied away from public publications... I was to hard to swallow, and harder to come to term with...

Well, here I am. as passionate with my dreams (maybe a little more), as much in love with my self (speak of an inflated ego), and really as much a chanter of the beauty of life as I ever been...

I will just say that (quoting one of my dearest friends) "Life doesn't suck!"...

Thank you Lara for such a beautiful quote...

5/31/2006 2:29:39 AM UTC    Comments [1] 

This year has been amazing on every front. Here is a short look back at the ending year:

• I will remember this year as the year I have lost contact with my daughter for so long, my mom had cancer, I met/rediscovered my most wonderful friends, I went through the most drastic change of my life - changed location, job, main language, lifestyle...
• Quite a bit of traveling (even a bit too much) in chronoligical order (I have probably missed a few):

While I was still based out of Casablanca, Morocco

• Cairo, Egypt (Middle East Developer Conference)
• Alexandria, Egypt (First Time)
• San Fransisco, California (VS-Live)
• Frankfurt, Germany
• Dusseldorf, Germany (First Time - Personal)
• Istanbul, Turkey (First Time)
• San Jose, California (First Time, SD-West)
• New Martinsville, West Virginia
• Orlando, Florida (VS-Cnnections)
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Ryiadh, Saudi Arabia (Gulf Developer Conference)
• Tunis, Tunisia (Business)
• Agiers, Algeria (North Africa Developer Conference)
• Istanbul, Turkey (Microsoft Summit, and moved to Istanbul for good)

• After I moved to Istanbul end of April (joined Microsoft May 2nd)

  • Datça, Turkey (First Time, holiday)
  • Lagos, Nigeria
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Karachi, Pakistan
  • Mauritius Island
  • Tunis, Tunisia
  • Casablanca, Morocco
  • Seattle, Washington
  • Portland, Oregon (Week end)
  • Tour of the Dardanels and the Egean Sea (Bandirma, çanakkale, Troy, Ayvacik, Essos, Balikesir) in Turkey (First Time)
  • New Martinsville, West Virginia
  • Chicago, Illinois
  • Bellevue, Washington
  • New Martinsville, West Virginia
  • Washington, DC (First Time)
  • Malta (First Time)
  • Numea, New Caledonia (First Time)
  • Papeete (Tahiti) and Moorea, French Polynesia (First Time)
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Mauritius Island
  • Paris, Fance
  • Douala, Cameroon (First Time)
  • Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (First Time)
  • Dakar, Senegal (First Time)
  • Saint Giles, Reunion Island (First Time)
  • Mauritius Island
  • Casablanca, Morocco (next week)
  • Paris, France (I will end the year there)

  I also transited by many places without stepping out of the airport

  • Rome, Italy
  • Milan, Italy
  • Frankfurt, Germany (many times)
  • Tunis, Tunisia
  • Cairo, Egypt
  • Munich, Germany
  • Djeddah, Saudi Arabia
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates (many times)
  • Paris, France (many times)
  • Charlotte, North Carolina
  • Osaka Japan (twice)
  • Nairobi, Kenya
  • Mauritius Island

• Crazy workload, crazy partying and a few private moments of fame and few moments of shame... Some of the things I will never forget - don't expect details (this is for insiders only) :
  • Late night chat at Intercontinental in Cairo
  • Crazy interview day in Istanbul
  • Spa in Orlando
  • Two first time divers in Datça
  • "The night" in Istanbul
  • An awkward declaration in a car by the bosphorus
  • A Cliff from the past in Ayvacik
  • A wedding party in Bellevue
  • Back to the office from Tahiti
  • WooHoo in Nairobi
  • Arriving late to Reunion
• This year has been full of surprises, including multiple new encounters, and multiple new friendships, some of which have become extremely important in my life, and some having very interesting promises.
• Some sad happenings:
  • My mom's disease
  • Lost contact with my daughter for a long time (Well, I will see her Tuesday. I am so thrilled!)
  • Close friends going through bad times (emotional and health)
  • A close friend loses her brother
  • my uncle's disease
  • The drone

    In short, I never thought one year could be so full... Neither have I ever thought I could handle such an intensity...

    I am so sorry if it has made me a little less availlable to so many people I care about...

    Merry Christmas, Happy new year, and Mabrouk El-Eid

12/24/2005 3:41:57 PM UTC    Comments [7] 

I have not been flying too many economy long haul flights lately, and was awakened by some remarks from my Lufthansa "flight attendant". I asked about the choice I have for drinks, and was not happy with the brands they had. She said " this is economy, it's free ".

I remember talking with some friends at some point in the past about the service (actually the lack of service would be more acurate) in economy class, and I believe it was Clemens that dubbed it "Cattle Class"...

8/9/2005 1:19:48 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

    Oh Boy, Oh Boy... during the month of June, I spent all my time in Hotels, planes, airport lounges ... etc. I only spent three nights sleeping on my bed.

   So, lots of traveling, no so much time for my friends - but I will make up for it  - and a great number of things to blog. I will rest a little bit today, and enjoy a an evening alone at home... Staring tomorrow, I will be blogging about Mauritius Island, Pakistan Developer Conference, Dubai, Lagos, Nairobi and Mombasa. I even have some fun stories like having been baptised with a new name : "Wambua" which litteraly means "Rain Man"... and that was only a side effect of having to have a tribe...

   I am really looking forward to a couple of days of "normality". before I go back to more travel and even more madness.

6/28/2005 9:28:42 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Check this out :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/elearning/

6/4/2005 3:23:41 PM UTC    Comments [3] 

I have been googling myself today (I never said my ego was not super inflated), and stumbled upon an a blog entry talking about the presentation on .Net vs. J2EE I did in Riyadh last month (The entry is in Arabic). There are a few things I think I should correct, as I think the remarks were not ill intended:

• The author claims that I said I would be perfectly neutral. I would have been foolish to claim perfectness in anything. I have only said that I would be as neutral as possible, and precised that I my own personnal choice was very clear, and that I prefered .Net
• The author said that I didn't succeed in being neutral, and that I was too favorable to .Net. I have had many reactions from attendees that were favorable to .Net that said that I was giving J2EE much more credit than it deserves. I believe that when people are there to discuss, we can talk in a serene and calm technical atmosphere.

5/27/2005 1:42:23 PM UTC    Comments [4] 

I have not been blogging lately, and will not be doing much of it in the next few days... It is very hard for me to cope with this...

5/9/2005 11:23:32 PM UTC    Comments [9] 

As I promised during my sessions at the Microsoft Zirvesi, here are my slide decks (I will be publishing the demos later).

Visual Studio 2005 : new features for the web services developer (926 KB)

DotNet vs j2ee (1.4 MB)

Developing Mobile Web Applications With ASP.NET (1.65 MB)

Compact Framework _ part 1 (3.78 MB)

Compact Framework _ part 2 (1.47 MB)

5/2/2005 8:20:15 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

   I will celebrating starting today in Casablanca, and not finishing until the end the month in Istanbul... Some of friends will be throwing a "bachelor party" for me Sunday in Istanbul, as I am joining Microsoft, letting go of my independent status. Then there is the very first time the anti-suckiness club meets in full membership, then the Turkey Developer Summit, then a friend's birthday... It is going to be a big long party.

4/22/2005 6:29:38 PM UTC    Comments [2] 

   Bye Bye Casablanca. Our relationship goes back to my very first day in life, even my very first second. Even though on paper, I am registered as being born in Figuig, my parents home town, on the 16th of February, I actually I was born in Casablanca sometime in late January 1968. I have traveled a lot, and I have loved some cities, hated others, but Casablanca will always hold a special place in my heart.

   Bye Bye Casablanca. I have seen your many faces, and the take time had on your physionomy. I remember when we were children, you and I, and you were already a promise of a metropolitan culture. I remember when your seaside's nights were rocked by Elvis, the Beattles, the Eagles, Jhon Lennon, Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker, David Bowie,  ABBA, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Simon&Garfunkel, ...etc. At that time, you were still as oriental as ever, and your evenings echoed the songs of Oum Kalthoum, Mohammad Abdelwahab, Abelhalim Hafiz, Farid Al Atrash, Nazim Al ghazali, Sabah Fakhri ...etc. Your beaches in the summer danced Flamenco, your weddings sounded Andalucian tarab, and in the trenches, one could loudly hear the reborn pop music of Nass Al Ghiwane...

   Bye Bye Casablanca. You saw me grow, and witnessed my early successes and failures. You brought me my first loves, my passion for electronics and then for computers, my inability to learn music or dance, my first ink portraits, my first poems. You inspired my dreams, and showed me the stars and the comets.You also saw me part from you for a few years, looking for other constallations, but reclaimed me so strongly I dwindled back in a hurry.

   Bye Bye Casablanca. You were harsh on me when I started my first business. I started in a market with 3 competitors, and 12 more saw the light within 6 months... You were harsh on me as well when you let my best friend and business partner whom I loved silently get killed for the stupidest of reasons. You made me glorious in the culture market, and then in the PR market, but each time letting me down at the highest of my vain glory. Were you just reminding me of my first and truest passions ? You gave me a home for my sweetest moments, gave me a the sweetest of daughters, then turned my life into neverending conflicts. You still gave me a nest from which I could get reborn from my ashes...

   Bye Bye Casablanca. I don't think I know you anymore. While I was busy with my little ambitions and daily troubles, you changed so much on me. You music is no longer mine. You don't even seem to be keen on diversity anymore. Your gardens and parks don't look green anymore. Your dreams seem so far away from mine. I can hardly find anything to tell you anymore... Or maybe I grew up on you, and you don't recognize me anymore.

   Bye Bye Casablanca. I will miss you a lot. Sure I will come every so often and visit. You will always have a precious spot in my heart and  big chunk of my memory, but it is time we part and become friends again...

4/22/2005 5:52:06 PM UTC    Comments [3] 

   Are you interested in experimenting with SQL Server 2005 (formerly codenamed Yukon), but don't have the time, the bits or the resources to install it and test it yourself ? Maybe you have it intalled, but it is taking you to much time to figure out the features ? MSDN has just launched SQL Server 2005 virtual labs you can use as part of the Visual Studio hosted experience. On the menu is a great selection of labs you can choose from :

• SQL Server 2005 Integration Services  
• SQL Server 2005 Introduction to SQL Server Management Studio  
• SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services  
• SQL Server 2005 Server Management Objects  
• SQL Server 2005 SQL CLR Integration  
• SQL Server 2005 SQL Query Tuning  
• SQL Server 2005 SQL Server and ADO.NET (Lab A)  
• SQL Server 2005 SQL Server and ADO.NET (Lab B)  
• SQL Server 2005 T-SQL Enhancements  
• SQL Server 2005 Web Services  
• SQL Server 2005 XML Capabilites 

Have fun!

4/5/2005 7:05:42 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

   I have hinted to movig out of Morocco and into Istanbul, Turkey. I can now say that I am joining Microsoft Middle East and Africa Head Quarters as a Technology Architect - Application Platform.

   This is a major change in my life, and I am really looking forward to the new challenges.

3/26/2005 10:46:48 AM UTC    Comments [3] 

  I have been looking through my agenda for the rest of March and April, and it is a quite busy schedule :

• March 21-23 : Visual Studio Connections in Orlando, FL (just 1 session)
• April 2 - 5 : Microsoft Partner Academy Workshops in Algiers, Algeria (4 full days)
• April 10-12 : Gulf Developers Conference in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia (6 sessions)
• April 16-18 : North Africa Developers Conference in Algiers, Algeria (4 sessions)
• April 25-27 : Developer Coference in Istanbul, Turkey (number of sessions TBD)

  Off course, I have all my regular work with my customers (to finish all ongoing projects, and I will be finished on those by April 8), flying in between locations takes usually one day before and one day after each event. All in all, I'll be home or a total of  7 busy days during the next 4 weeks... and then I will be moving... to Istanbul for good.

3/20/2005 6:18:33 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

   SSW (australian company, lead by my good friend Adam Cogan) has a great product for code audit.

The concept is quite simple : define rules using regular expressions (it has a builtin RegEx editor) to be checked against source code, file path, file names, HTML code ...etc, and define wether that is a desirable (should exist) or undesirable (should not exist) pattern (there is a lot of flexibility built in, as setting exceptions, notes, or statistics about the rules and the time they take). You choose the files you want to apply the rules to, and you run a scan. At the end you get a detailed report.

   The tool allows you to schedule automatic execution, and email the reports to any email address.

   It has many qualities I love in products: useful, productive, simple... Great job, Adam.

3/18/2005 4:17:16 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Check out this series of Videos :

Scott and Rory go to TechEd :

• #1 : A love Story
• #2 : Scott and Rory design some software

Way to go guys, keep up the fun.

3/17/2005 10:45:48 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

Big changes for me in the air ...

I won't give anymore details until May 1st.

3/15/2005 3:34:32 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

What's the next step for .Net ? this might just be it ...

AspSoft  is preparing a big surprise for TechEd 2005. be there!

3/3/2005 11:18:46 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

Not counting home, Me and Goksin just realized we have been on 4 continents this month... and we've been there together too... does this call for a new club?

2/26/2005 3:11:03 PM UTC    Comments [0] 

It still takes you too much time to build your Business entities and manage their persitence?  Check out what Serena is doing with paladin.

I will be talking in more details about it next week (as I am just finishing the last details of Atlantis bank, and finally getting ready to be out of the tunnel).

2/24/2005 2:39:52 AM UTC    Comments [20] 

I have been looking at bug tracking for a Mozilla (Firefox) bug related to tooltips.

I was surprized by quite a few things. Here are some :

• 5 years to fix a bug ?
• Opened: 2000-07-13 06:28 PST
• Status : ASSIGNED        Priority : P3
• Last modified: 2005-02-11 15:01 PST
• Threads that take up days to end up marked as duplicates
• an incredible offer :

I'm interested in attempting to fix this bug...  I'm a competent C/C++
programmer with no experience with the Mozilla code base, so I'd appreciate it
if someone could point me to the part of the code (file and lines) where
tooltips are handled, and I'll take a look.

• Even comments like this :

The problem, as I understand it, is that the bug blocking this one depends on a
person who is no longer working on Mozilla doing some work, or another person
doing a huge amount of work.  If anyone would like to fix it, many people would
appreciate it.

You still like to use OSS in your critical systems? good luck...

2/19/2005 9:02:29 AM UTC    Comments [6] 

Check this... The best love letter ever written!

2/16/2005 6:38:38 AM UTC    Comments [13] 

   This year, I had a great time (again) in Cairo. I had to do 7 presentations at the conference!!! but I still could manage to spend some time with my friends. 4 out of 5 of the anti-suckiness club were there : Kimberly Tripp, Steven Forte, Goksin Bakir and I. We had some very good moments. Patrick Hynds was accompagnied by his wife Sabina and his partner Bruce Bacca. We had arranged to stay for two extra-days, and we did some tourism together. It was very fun and Sabina and Bruce are very nice to hang out with.

   Lara Martini was there too, and I had some good time talking to her. She made me remember writing (which I have not done for quite a while) as she wrote poetry and short stories as well.

   All in all, I got to meet quite a few new people, to do some productive speaking, and to hang out with friend. It was a blast.

2/5/2005 1:48:33 AM UTC    Comments [0] 

     The initiative lead by Julia Lerman and Stephen Forte, the .Net "Celebrity" Auction for the benefit of Tsunami victims of Banda Aceh will start this afternoon (2pm GMT time) on e-bay . Your bid will buy you an hour of consulting from one of the top experts, and all the money will go to the tsunami victims.

    Stephen Forte has the complete list with bios on his blog.

    Thanks to Thinktecture (and fellow .Net celebrities Christian Nagel, Christian Weyers, Ingo Rammer and Ralf Westphal from Thinktecture) who, being unable to get on board because they did not get the info on time (Travel and busy schedules play tricks on all of us sometimes) they have decided to help by picking up all the e-bay fees.

   You can click on the above link to the e-bay auction or go here : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5552696499

   Some people seem to dislike the term "Celebrity" that Julia used to discribe us. I don't usually like to be discribed with such words, and I'm sure many on the list have the same feelings. but I have a few remarks on the subject : If not every single person on the list is a worldwide celebrity (I definitely don't think I am one), these are definitely people that would be seen as celebrities at least in their respective geographies. Also, the term celebrity only means that they are known and liked by a big number of people, which doesn't say the same as "top notch experts", which does apply to most people on the list (I would qualify as such everyone escept myself, and I know some would disagree with the exclusion)... Anyway, even if the celebrity status was not appropriate in other circumstances (and I know many of us have been called things that go beyond the term "celebrity" in the past, like "Software Legends", "Rock Stars", "Over Achievers", and many other things), it is completely appropriate as marketing for such a noble cause.

    Celebrity or not, these are people that will gie you more than your money's worth in consulting and advice.

    For my part, I intend to give a rather "long hour", and to deliver without much delay (notwithstanding my busy agenda).

1/23/2005 1:06:57 PM UTC    Comments [10] 

     The .Net "Celebrity" Auction for the benefit of Tsunami victims of Banda Aceh will start this afternoon (GMT time) at e-bay . Your bid will buy you an hour of consulting from one of the top experts, and all the money will go to the tsunami victims.

    Stephen Forte has the complete list with bios on his blog.

    Thanks to Thinktecture (and fellow .Net celebrities Christian Nagel, Christian Weyers, Ingo Rammer and Ralf Westphal from Thinktecture) who, being unable to get on board because they did not get the info on time (Travel and busy schedules play tricks on all of us sometimes) they have decided to help by picking up all the e-bay fees.

   You can click on the above link to the e-bay auction or go here : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5552696499

   For my part, I intend to give a rather "long hour", and to deliver without much delay (notwithstanding my busy agenda).

1/23/2005 12:28:42 PM UTC    Comments [10] 

Sony, although almost all their exisisting systems are J2EE based, has choosen .NET Framework and .NET Framework built Web Services for their new Professional Services web presence. Check it out at eweek...

1/22/2005 6:36:22 PM UTC    Comments [16] 

A group of us RDs, MVPs, .NET experts, trainers and consultants, including very famous .NET community figures are going to auction an hour of consulting time for the benefit of Tsunami victims of Banda Aceh. The iniiative, championed by Julia Lerman and Stephen Forte  will go live soon. The participants include:

Michelle Leroux Bustamante (Das Blonde, the Interop Worriors princess), Kimberly L. Tripp (Sql Hera, Anti-Suckiness club member), Jonathan Goodyear(Angry Coder), Andrew Brust (The most quoted .NET expert), Richard Campbell (Toy Boy), Adam Cogan (Office Development Guru), Goksin Bakir (Yoda, the JIT Speaker,Anti-Suckiness club member), Jackie Goldstein (Author and very active community leader), Ted Neward (Mountain of worthy information), Kathleen Dollard(GenDotNet), Hector M Obregon, Patrick Hynds (Tech Seige, the smartest man I know and he still has a life), Fernando Guerrero (Solid Quality Learning), Kate Gregory (Great Kate, and C++ is still alive and well), Joel Semeniuk (not work burnout, simply enjoying Team System), Scott Hanselman (ComputerZen or the nicest person on the face of the earth), Barry Gervin (Not lost and still having great fun with triangulations and Map Point), Clemens Vasters ( Enterprise Development & Alien Abductions, Das Blog, Proseware, hundreds of talks, and still disposed to give you a liberal interpretation of "1" hour,Anti-Suckiness club member) , Jorge Oblitas (No, Pisco isn't part of the auction deal, just very serious consulting time),