Google Calendar Sync

Now I can sync my Google Cal from my Android Epic Samsung with My Microsoft Outlook 2007.
It is now the time to say that I am using technology to its end.

Google Calendar Sync

Alwah is ranking up

After few months now, it looks like Alwah is going up.
The Alexa rank is now 700,000+
And the Google PR is 3.

Free File Sync

After few searches, I got it, it is kind of have-it-all software with easy UI.
It is called FreeFileSync, HomePage

Back to my old love LEGO

It has been a while now, I am setting up my location to be back to my old love, LEGO.

Moving ... updating

After few days of settling down, I can declare that I have moved to my first house here in Austin TX, it is kind of small but has enough space to fit us all.

Certificate collector

After taking the fourth exam and passing all the way, now, I am officially a:
Microsoft Office 2007 Specialist, and Microsoft Office 2007 Master
Link to my transcript on Certiport

Third exam, third certificate

Have just passed the Microsoft Office Specialist in PowerPoint 2007, Daaa
I will do the Word 2007 on Friday to get the Microsoft Office Master certificate.

Second step to Microsoft Office Master

Just got the Microsoft Office Specialist in Outlook 2007, which is the second step to gain Microsoft Office Master certificate.
Will do PowerPoint and Word on Wed and Fri.

Preparing for Microsoft Office Master certificate

After doing well in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Specialist certificate, I got the energy to do other Office certificates.
Outlook, PowerPoint and Word, doing those three will entitle me to get the Microsoft Office Master certificate.
It was kind of an old old dream, to start doing these certificates, and here we are!!!

TOYOTA Corolla 1966 - 2009

I could not resist myself enjoying this video

Update: 2018-12-26
During blog move, I noticed that old video was removed, so below is the newest one found

More free time

For the first time in three months, I feel that I have some time to do my own projects.
The main client who used to fill my time up with work for the recent three months has not contacting me since 5th of August.
That is actually a good thing, even if it looks like a bad thing.

Microsoft Office Specialist

I was almost running after these certificates for several years now, I just didn't have the time and the effort to do it.

August 6th desktop

This is my desktop screen on Aug 6th 2010

My pix

Below are some pix of me in several occasions, some of them are (Wanted) pix I liked to share
I have always loved these photos, and since I could not do it in regular shop, I just did it digitally using one of those applications out there.

Ramadan, August in Austin

It is going to be tough, this Ramadan has arrived in August.
And we all know August in Austin, and how this will be tough, no water, no food from around 5AM to 8PM.

Another great application

Now this is another one, TreePad Lite
It looks like I am going to buy the full version, it has a lot of features<

Finally find it - LaunchBar Commander

It has been a while since I last explored and application, and when I do, I find the best one I was looking for.
It is LaunchBar Commander from DonationCoder.com

Hacking attempts on File1.net

They have been trying that for a while but after some attempts they could access the database.
File1.net my first website faced a hacking attempt.
I liked that, that proves that the website is grabbing some visitors now, and it is becoming more and more popular.

Even my bugs are new

I am facing an issue now
Even the bugs I am facing are new too.
After I have installed VS2010, My Excel2007 started to crash several times in one hour, this started to be frustrating, I need to see if VS2010 is the issue and solve it.

multiple tasks / projects again

It is that time again, I do love these days of multiple projects dues and work need to be done.

Where is Alwah.net?

This is not good.
It has been more than 6 months since I last added features to Alwah.net, and I don't like that.

My desktop today July 11 2010

My Family interviews

We just started a family interview, it is when we ask everybody what does he/she think about another member of the family.
The beautiful part is that each one sees the others with what he thinks they are
What does X think of Y?
X - Y: item1, item2, etc
Afnan - Afnan: hyper, weird, doesn't fancy computers.
Shukran - Afnan: book addicted, over reacts, sometimes nice, giving.
Amina - Afnan: Fast temper, want to rule the world, very dedicated.
Hawraa - Afnan: Crazy, angry, cannot control herself, helpful, love to learn, giving.

Visual Studio 2010

This one sound promising!!
The previous one I tried (was Visual Studio 2005) was tough to jump into, since I needed to try the ASP.NET, It was hard to jump from Classic ASP into ASP.NET of VS2005.

New mouse every month

I had already got that few years ago
Changing mouse has much more fun than stick with only one.
Years ago I was preferring to stay with one mouse, so when I like one and getting used to it, I go and buy more of it, to have backup when one is braking.

Iraqi says: Local singer would not entertain

An Iraqi say, says that "Local singer, would not entertain", I love these types of says that are full of wisdom.

New place, new walls

We found it, it was in a good location, same Middle and High schools, and good Elementary school, so only one person need to change her school.
It had 4 bedrooms plus a study, close family environment, and isolated kitchen.
So without any hesitation we made the offer, and hope we got it, Inshaa' Allaah.

Shukran' s blog

Shukran is now has her own blog, it is here Shukran's Shake and it took me longer than I planned due to some changes in the template.
Anyhow, I am learning new stuff doing all these blogs, and will be doing more soon.

New Clipboard software

This one sound promising, it has up to 25 slots for the clipboard plus easy to paste method.
http://m8software.com/clipboards/freeclip/freeclip.htm
It worth a try

Got my new pride

I used to call them my prides, and my wife wouldn't mind
I just got my Toshiba X500-Q895S with its 1GB of display memory, 1TB of hard drive, i7-740Q cpu and 6GB RAM.
The most interesting part is the display, it is 18.4" wide, waw, I love this pride.
Spent the last two days installing my stuff and discovering it, I am going to love this and will not go back to that tiny 17" display laptops.

A minute that worth millions

This morning, the books I bought for my youngest have arrived.
It is a set of 7 books for Harry Potter and it was for her birthday yesterday.
Now the look in her eyes when I woke her up and show her the set was the most joyful minute in my life, seeing her happy with this set of books and couldn't believe that she got it finally is indeed a minute that worth millions.
Can you see the happy Dad here?

Afnan's birthday and Takleef

We decided to do Afnan' birthday today June 22nd since we had two doctor's appointments yesterday, she was born in June 21st 2001 in Iraq. Now since this is her 9th birthday, we will need to do the Takleef party too.

QFT or FQT

QFT is for (Quality Family Time) and FQT is for (Family Quality Time).
That what we (me and my kids) used to refer to when we want to have a chat, four of us sitting and taking about several things, ideas, stories and of course tips and interesting remarks about us as Muslims living in this beautiful country.

My new toy

My new toy
They say the difference between a man and a boy is The price of his toys :-)
Just bough this one with $2,058, it is great, and exactly the size I am looking for (I was searching for bigger on, but no luck). anyway, I will start enjoying it in few days.

Now is Shukran's turn

Searching for a blog for my middle lovely daughter Shukran
She has really good attitude and really may be the one that will involve into online stuff the most.
Let's hope that

eMacros LC

Getting back to eMacros, some projects are taking place that made us change some plans and future thoughts.
I like when this happen.

Tariq Ramadan

Great speech, by Tariq Ramadhan from Archive.org

New Business Cards

Now we ordered the new business cards that have the new logo, they should arrive before June 30th.
Here are what they are going to look like:

Need some rest

After some busy days and good/bad time management, I need some rest, It was a busy week, with lots of new projects (at least now I have 4 need to deliver next week).
I kind of like it, this projects traffic, but it looks like I do have some limit.
Projects now on hand:

About me

Hey, this is me ANmar (Capital A and Capital N), also known as XLMan, VBAXLMan and XLBro, or lately DrASCII, it looks like, I am an Excel-guy duh!!!.
Driven by results, fast-learning, and above all an Excel addict and a workaholic at the same time.

Web development - structure diagram

This is a very good diagram that shows how the web developing and related design knowledge are structured.
Check it out, it is very helpful to understand it.

Another planet life?

NASA says that one of the 86 moons of "Saturn" has similar conditions as earth, may be not water, but some gases that might replaces water as a life source.
We have some "Islamic" guys that would say that Quran says that water is the only source of life.

Private Space?

Still learning,
Just learned that while driving in your car, leaving a space after the car in front of you is part of the "Private Space".

3 great daughters

One of my daughters wants a magic wand as birthday gift, she is so into Harry Potter that when I try to speak with her while she is reading, she just point at me with her index finger and without moving her eyes away from the book, saying, "just a min, dad"
The other one want to invest some cash in Microsoft, Apple and Coke stock market, she is actually has some virtual account, that is a trial version showing her how to invest.

Documenting programming

Now that is another story, I already know that Programming is the easy part, documenting what the programmer does is completely another tough part.
It is again happened, I have to do the documenting for the ACuSys system, it is taking me a lot of time, and need to remember a lot of old stuff I did and why I did that.
However, the client is happy with it and might have some new chances in the future to do more like these.

Amina' s First honor role

Now is Amina. she got a First Honor Role with IB certificate. I didn't have the time to go, my wife did and got some pictures.
That was in the morning, in the Evening, we did go to the concert for all grades in Murchison Middle school, also got some pix.
Will try to post these soon.

Shukran' s Honor Certificate

Shukran, my middle daughter, just got a certificate as "Second Honor Role" few hours ago.
Ok, she got the certificate because she worked hard to get good grades, why I feel like I am the one who got it?

My wife is a car driver

I need to write these down before I forget it.
My wife is now a good car driver, and has her own car.
She start learning how to drive early Jan 2010
In Late Jan 2010, I bought another car (Highlander Hybrid 2006) and sold my NISSAN XTERRA 2001 to my brother with easy payments.

Full Quran, Audio, Al-Sedeisi

I had it since 1999, it is very beautifully red, the Full Quran with both readers (Al-Sedeisi and Al-Shreim) during Ramadhan prayer.

Customer Feedback

These are just few lines I got today in the email for the recent project work I was busy with.
We had really rush time and low info to do what we done, however, we did it after few missing deadlines.
See the full article for the customer feedback.

Dirty VS Impure

This looks it is hard to understand for any non-Muslim.
There are two type of the "Dirty" we deal with here in Islam
The first type is the Dirty, means the items that are obviously not clean, due to dust for example, or to surfaces that are not clean, so those are kind of fine to do most of practice with it.
Off course, it should be clean, but being it unclean will not prevent the practice.

24 Domains and the number is going up

I just found out that I have 24 domain names that I need to track and control.
Most of them are not online yet, hoo.
I got to keep up working on this to make them online.
It is all starts with File1.net and ends up with DCave

Another car to fix

Here we are again, I need to spend around $1,000 on my wife's car to do the A/C.
I kind of expected that, but not this soon. I need to replace the compressor, hoses and some other stuff. It is kind of everything.
Now my wife is driving in this summer without A/C.

Just love to watch this...!

???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ??????? ???????? ?????????
From Dailymotion

Yes, the ugly truth

This one will prove that the prophet Mohammed name is there in both previous books
Open the post to get both videos that cover it all
Original Post Link

Can I get back?

I was talking with my kids yesterday, telling them that a joke is the best way to break down all walls with stranger.
And then remembered when I was using that tool with any new customer.

Best picture

I don't know where I found this one, but since I found, I just can't stop looking at it.
This is in my eyes the best profile photo I have ever seen in my life.

Installing Windows Home Server

It was kind of slow, but it did installed on my P4 computer.
It has only 504MB of RAM, and installed and running kind of smooth.

New ANmars.com

After doing some searches, I found the design I am looking for.
It is more like me, except attractive.

Advancing Needs More Aggressive Rules

Advancing needs more aggressive rules
It is true, every time I try that, it proves its accuracy.

Another daughter blog

Now my eldest has her own blog, using the same old skin
AMI's 964
Which using the same engine I talked about earlier.

My Multiple Blog skins

After doing my youngest daughter blog, (Afnan's corner), I tried to do kind of universal blog engine that can fit any HTML template skin after some work need to be done in HTML > ASP coding, this will also help when any of my kids or relative asked fo a blog, in my website domain.
So here are what I have done so far:

New Afnan' s website

Yesterday, my youngest daughter asked to have her own blog.
I said, yes sure
After we searched for a free CSS templates, we found one and I spent the next 4 hours working with it.

About

What have I done wrong?
Have you seen someone enjoying sitting in front of his computer rather than go out for Friday night?
Have you seen someone having his joyful time working with numbers, cells and excel formulas rather than playing video game?

Well that one is me, I am the kind of guy that would leave the party to sit down on any computer to fix some new ugly spreadsheet problem requested by some one in another country.

DCave is coming soon

That is it....
DCave is coming soon, I spent a lot of my recent time working on VBAXLMan.com, now after I have bought DCave, I will move to it.
Why DCave? that is another story, read the full article to know.....!!

I need a freaking Job

I need a freaking job.
Posted on Yahoo! news
INeedAFreakin.Job

New ANmars logo

This is the new banner
They said "Needing is the mother of invention", or something like that
I am not a graphic person, and will never be one day, but that is what is happening here with me, I had to go to the graphic section to make some beautiful stuff.
More graphic changes are coming... especially in VBAXLMan.com

New Captcha

It looks like sometimes the complicated solution (advanced one) will not be as effective as the simple cheap one.
I was using reCaptcha for a while now, even though i am facing some spam recently though that.
So I am changing to a simple one, after few searches, I got this one.
It is stupidly simple, let me see if it will work and prevent the spam or not.

Back to my deen (Religion)

I have started today May 10th 2010 to practice Salat (Muslim pray) after stopping for few years now
There were few starts like this before, but this time is different, I have the power now and determination to do so.
I am wishing that I don't stop any more, ISA.

I love Enigma

I just love to hear ENIGMA, since the first one I listen to it, it was on late 90s and called "Return to Innocence"Now the new great one is "The Same Parents", wow I just love to listen to it again and again and again

Windows startup sounds

All Windows Startup sounds
From Win3.1 to Win7, each one of them brings tons of memories.

Animal Farm cartoon

Animated barn animals act out human faults in life and politics in Orwell's captivating tale..
There was a story behind this cartoon, read it in the full article

My Desktop - May 2010

My desktop on May 2010 3rd

Who stole this cock - Iraqi vintage song

Old Iraqi famous song
We used to sing it almost at every party

Refugees in Austin video

Check out this video about the life in US
I really liked what between the lines

Between the lines, I meant that US is the country that holds everyone between its arms.

Car Bomb in NY?

I hate these news, I just heard that there was a suspected car bomb in Times Square...!
What is going on there?
It looks like those Islamanian (Those who called themselves Muslims, while they are far away from it) will not leave us alone
I feel that my beautiful safty feeling is shaking again, just like the way I used to live in Iraq 20 years ago.
(Open article for the video)

I want to do something, but what? how?
BBC News
CNN News

New website approach

I am thinking now that I do the VBAXLMan.com website idea to another domain.
May be a storage that enables users to host all their digital work, I am thinking of buying domains like:
DevDigitalDepot.com
or
GurusCave.com
Or something similar.
After that, VBAXLMan.com can have my work as VBAXLMan, my answers and classes in addition to some lessons in Excel
Let us see where these ideas will take me

My beloved city

Austin ranked as no 10 in the list of The Best Places for Business and Careers in 2010
I was always thinking that I had a lot of chances elsewhere, may be larger city, NYC, DC, San Francisco.
But what kept me is that, I am still having some chances here.
There is a say: The bad that you know is better than a good that you don't know.
Check out the link here for the list

They got that egyption guy

Dan Horn -1984

Now you see why he is the best in the world, right?

My Desktop on spring

This is how my desktop looks like on Spring 2010

Mark Gungor - Tale of two brains

I liked the fact that I don't stop clapping my hands on everything this guy says
This guy is brilliant.

VBAXLMan.com is back

VBAXLMan.com is also back, will try to finish it by the end of this month.
It enables you to host all your digital work.

VBAXLMan on Yahoo Answers again

Getting back to VBAXLMan on Yahoo! Answers, starting to answer a lot of Excel questions again, and within few days, I became a "Top Contributor" again, and got to level 6.
My Yahoo! Answers profile

Losing weight

Losing weight after all these years. I don't know what is happening, but I am losing weight, I lost now almost 33 lbs (15 Kgs) I guess the procedure I am following is working fine

Alwa7 or Alwah

After few months of developing, the website Alwa7 or Alwah is attracting some visitors now.

IT experience

I don't know what is happening? It looks like the years are marking up into my experience.
After few tries, still cant get this computer to work.
Windows 7 is harder than I thought regarding IT and changing hard drives

New projects .NET

There is a chance that I got new project in VB.NET with connecting to database. cross the fingers

Iraqi people before Saddam and After Saddam

Two videos showing how easily the iraqi people can turn between two phases
The funny part is that those dancing in the background look they are the same people in the two videos

Best Quran website

I come across a lot of Quran websites during my daily browsing, but this one is the best one ..
It makes you feel that you are really holding it in your hands

Blog is back

Finally, I could create my own blog, was really busy

Sabaawi, Saddam and his men in Iraq and what they used to do

This is part of what we had to live with all these 25 years in Iraq, no wonder we all act like have a psychological malfunctions

eMacros Limited Company

During the last six months, I could establish my company eMacros Limited Company, build its website (in English and Arabic), and start few small projects for it

Got my Hybrid

Just bought the TOYOTA Highlander