Important Update!
I have moved my blog ... if you are interested in wasting your time on some net-noise please update my blog address it is now on:

basem.narmok.net

Best,
Basem Narmok

AI@50

In 1956 they gathered for the "Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence" for a month! and now after 50 years they do it again, looking back to the last 50 years and forward to the challenges of the next 50 years of AI.

The cool thing is that five of the original 1956 participants are participating in this conference too :-) cool, I love to know what they will say about the last 50 years in AI:
John McCarthy (wikipedia)
Marvin Minsky(wikipedia)
Trenchard More
Ray Solomonoff(wikipedia)
Oliver Selfridge (wikipedia)

And other big names in AI will be there :-) so cool.
Conference Homepage
Conference Program

I wish I am at Dartmouth now!

Extreme Programming Explained
book review

Rate: 4/5
Category: Software Development Process, Agile Methodology

Going deep:
XP is an agile programming process, and as Bruce said in one of his interviews (at the end of last year) with the swampcast (Michael Levin's podcast): "its all about people", extreme programming focuses on individual growth and team work in an iteration fashion with the customer to solve his/her problem, its a process that developed from inside the developers community to the developers and others.

XP is a real challenge, as it needs a skillful people, XP in few words:

• Humanity, it is all about people
• Whole team
• Pair programming
• Project as stories
• Weekly/Bi-weekly cycles (iterations)
• Testing, testing, testing
• Customer as a team member
• Quality, less/no defects (Social structure) (Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno)

"XP is a way of thinking about and acting on your ideals"

Why 4 and not 5? really the book is nice to read, and I found that reading it alone will not give you a real picture about XP, the better is to read more about XP (e.g. from the net), and to discus it with others who are interested in Agile methodologies, a course with Kent Beck in XP coaching is the best (I think).

As always I like Kent's note to programmers in the beginning of the book:
"Even programmers can be whole people in the real world. XP is an opportunity to test yourself, to be yourself, to realize that maybe you've been fine all along and just hanging with the wrong crowd."

Be yourself!

The next 20 years

What we need in the next 20 years in technology and artificial intelligence?

I think the following list are the most important fields in computer science for the coming 10-20 years:

• Knowledge processing
  (structured and unstructured this includes text, audio, and video)


• Human interaction
  (as many people are going to use computers in a way or another)


• Programming languages
  (because programming languages now needs more development, todays programming languages are like assembly before 25 years!)
  

Now what is the shared technology between all of what I mentioned above?
It is natural language processing, yes, so the most important field of research that we can't evolve without and we'll be like who is stuck in the time dimension, is natural language processing.

To process knowledge in different languages you need natural language processing.

People interact using language ... so the best way to interact with humans is natural language.

Advances in natural language processing will definitely in a way or another affect programming languages, remember we think using language! so we solve problems using the language, so why don't we program using natural language, today's programming languages are very restrictive way to get that stupid machine to do something useful.

To "programming languages" fanatics, don't think that human evolution will stop at (Java and .net) there are more to come, Java and .net now is like assembly before 25 years for a person in 2026!

Have fun!

Crisis Group Report

The Crisis Group report "Jordan's 9/11: Dealing With Jihadi Islamism" is one of the most interesting and accurate reports I ever read, also I have some comments on the report, the report talks about what they call in the report as the Jihadi Salafism which the Zarqawi represents, my comments on the report (note that the report is fairly accurate but needs more to be clarified and misses a very important point):

• The report didn't mention the Takfir Ideology! and this is strange
  The main point here is Takfir and the report missed this important point!



• The report divided the Salafism into three trends! in a political view which isn't totally true!
  This isn't accurate, the report says that Salafism developed into three trends:
  Jihadi(Violent), Islahi(Reformist), and the Traditional one. I think the more accurate classification is Takfiri (includes both Jihadi and Islahi), and Anti-Takfiri which is the original true Salafism, see the next point



• The report didn't focus enough on the relation between Jihadi Salafism and Muslim Brotherhood, even the report showed Muslim Brotherhood as a good ideology!
  The true origin of Jihadi Salafism is Muslim Brotherhood ideology! yes, when they couldn't stand against the original Salafism they came with a new political movement which they called Jihadi Salafism and most if not all original founders of it were Muslim Brotherhoods (e.g. Abdullah Azzam), I don't know why did the report miss this fact! an important fact, all Takfir ideology's roots came from Muslim Brotherhood's ideology! all of the modern Takfiri parties were Muslim Brotherhoods or influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood's political ideology

There are three types of people I don't like: Lawyers, Marketing people, and Journalists! Why? because they lie to live!

Anyways the report is really interesting to read and you can find it here:
Jordan's 9/11: Dealing With Jihadi Islamism

Takfir Ideology

I remember the year 1999 and I will never forget that year! after finishing my Bachelor degree from University Of Jordan I was interested in continuing my studies in "Hadith Science" at the Islamic University in Saudi Arabia, and really I went there and made an interview -that was October 1999- in the Islamic University at Al-Madinah in Saudi Arabia, but they didn't accept me! I had a strong feeling that the problem was my recommendation letter as it was from Shaykh Ali Al-Halabi and at that time in the year 1999 a strong campaign was going on against the Anti-Takfir which was taking place in Jordan by the students of Shaykh Alalbani, and I remember Shaykh Ali saying to me "Basem are you sure you want to go there? ..." and he pointed to me that I should be aware of Takfiri parties flourishing there! Thanks God ... they didn't accept me, and thank you Shaykh Ali, I learned a lot from you "Jazaka Allah Khairan".

I remember the years 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 ... amazing! a lot of people don't know what Anti-Takfir students were facing while teaching people the truth, the real Islam, it was like a political war between light and dark, no one mentions them the "Unknown Soldiers", the sad thing is that after all people mix between them and Takfiris! really they are the "Unknown Soldiers" and all what I can say is "Allah Al-Musta'an".

Anti-Takfir school in Jordan faced a strong war during the period 1998 - 2002 and still until this day, many books written against Alalbani students in Jordan from scholars in Saudi Arabia like "Safer Alhawali and many others" , from students in other countries, and from Takfiris in Jordan! but many Muslims don't even know about all of this!

I hope that I will have the time to write about this some day "Insha'Allah"

Alhamdulillah

Happy news -finally- to hear that Zarqawi the terrorist was killed last day :-) Alhamdulillah -Thanks God- but is it enough? a lot of Muslims don't know what is Takfir! I remember that during 1998 - 2002 when ever I talked about Takfir and how dangerous it is, many were ready to beat me and kick me! what a world! anyways Alhamulillah, but really the price that the world paid to learn the danger of Takfir was so expensive! why don't we listen to each other? I don't know!

Alhamdulillah

Six Thinking Hats
book review

Rate: 3/5
Category: Mind, Thinking, Management, Meetings


Going deep:
I got this book from Isam Bayazidi (Thanks Isam), I gave the book 3 because it should be 20 pages and not 175 pages! I think DeBono can write the story in 20 pages (7 A4 pages) no need to expand the book that much! so I gave it just 3 out of 5.

In general the book will not teach you how to think or how to learn, No, it will teach you how to manage group thinking, specially in meetings, so the book is a thinking management tool, so don't think that you will become smarter after reading the book, you will just learn how to manage group thinking toward a better thinking, and so a better solution(s).

To manage human thinking DeBono classifies thinking into five modes:

• Emotions (Red Hat) (Feelings)
• Logic (Black Hat) (Negative) (Caution)
• Information (White Hat) (Facts)
• Hope (Yellow Hat) (Positive)
• Creativity (Green Hat) (New Ideas)

DeBono tries to simplify human complex thinking, by managing thinking modes, and provide a smooth way to switch between the modes, so instead of entering a tornado of badly managed meeting(s), and waste your time, use this method to manage thought flow, thinking modes, and save time (also don't forget meeting agenda!).

DeBono tries to focus on time, and channeling different minds to think in a constructive manner toward a better agreed on solution(s).

You may ask, what is the sixth hat? it is the Blue Hat, it is the sky that controls the other hats, and transition from mode to mode, it is the Controlling mode.

Conclusion:
Good book to read, but I think it just needs 7 pages (A4 size), 6 pages, one for each hat, and the last page a concrete example of using the hats in a real life meeting.

Another or maybe related!
I stopped many times reading this sentence in AI book:
"Babbage had the right idea, but lacked the organizational skills to get his machine built"
[Artificial Intelligence - A Modern Approach]
What did they mean with "organizational skills"?