Category: LTT (Page 2 of 2)

Minimalism is the new efficiency

2017-10-27 / Muaad Elsharif / 0 Comments

The year 2017 is coming to an end, here I have some updates to share, small changes in my productivity flow that might prove to be a game changer in the near future!

Bye bye Xmind!

I’ve been using Xmind as a mind map manager for over 4 years now, I’ve even blogged about it and boasted it’s features. Only to realize that it’s bloated! I don’t use half the features it has and most of the “good stuff” are locked away with a commercial license.

Most posts start out like that.

I’m back to using Freemind V 1.0.1 and I couldn’t be happier.
Just opening Xmind 3.5.2 sent my laptop fan on a frenzy, spinning like I’m rendering an HD video, as I’m writing this Freemind is sitting in the background like it doesn’t exist! Brilliant!

Even tho there is a way to make mind maps in Libreoffice, it’s can’t beat the quality of Freemind.

Why the change?

Freemind is smaller in size, consumes less resources, and while it may not look as pretty or well finished as Xmind it gets the job done completely free of charge.
It’s all about simplicity and achieving productivity.

Freemind 1.0.1 interface

Going back to Pomodro

Since moving to Kubuntu I haven’t had a decent timer for my system, I tried out several ones but none of them was as good as pomodro timer, I installed it and the Gnome app works perfectly on KDE, it’s one of my most viewed posts for a reason!

No more Zim?!

Yes Zim-Wiki is the best personal wiki I came across, and while it’s functional I find having to change from it and to LibreOffice quite irritating, so I had to clear out the clutter and stick to one productivity suit, LibreOffice is packed with features and so much I don’t feel like I miss anything.

I had to install tasque again, but I removed it because I like managing my tasks in a graphical way using a mind map.

Phone Tweaks

I’ve blogged about customizing and rooting my phone in Arabic (follow at your own risk), and I’ve rendered my phone useless before by removing an essential system app using root privilege, now after everything went back to normal I decided to remove some apps that I felt like I no longer need.

I installed ES file explorer, from back when it was ad free, and since it does so many functions I took the liberty to remove the file manager, the music player, video player, photo gallery. ES file explorer does all that and more!

I’ve also removed all the moving backgrounds. I’ve also removed Apex and installed Nova launcher, which is working great!

Phone’s interface with Nova

The app drawer

I don’t use a note keeping app because I send the notes to myself via Telegram, and I removed maps because I never got anywhere using it!

Before I had the default android keyboard disabled, now I deleted it all together. I use Gboard as the default keyboard, and using ES file explorer and root privlages I tweaked the keyboard sounds (I need a life).

I’d remove Google play store if I could, but sadly it cannot be done, it doesn’t even work for me and it was the root cause of all my of issues, I use APK pure and I haven’t had an issue with it yet!

I’ve replaced the prayer time app with a lighter one and the feature packed Adobe with a simple PDF reader.

To save more battery power I changed the developer options to kill unused apps, there is some improvement, but again you’re advised to try any of these tricks at your own risk. Gotta keep it charged and happy because you never know..

Tweaking developer options

And since the system didn’t fall apart yet, I think it was a success, I do keep a stock ROM just in case the phone fails, and I advice you to do so too if your phone manufacturer

provides them.

Software for work

What I’m trying to do is creating a productive work flow, that’s minimal and efficient, while moving to Linux was a great first step, I feel more needs to be done, and since I downloaded several gigabytes worth of software for college work (all free and open source of course), I have to make budget cuts to keep the system going!

No more room for Sublime or Atom (god forbid), and since I downloaded Android studio and Netbeans, I decided that Kate (default text editor in Kubuntu) would suffice to write code, rather than the former two. All in favor of saving space and resources.

Kate can’t handle large text files, such as the blog backup for example.

Blogging ventures

I blogged on Itsfoss, one of the leading open source blogs to help draw attention to a Linux version of FDM, I blogged about it a while back but it wasn’t enough to tip the scale in favor of FDM Linux, after my post on itsfoss was published FDM Linux went from being 5th on the future feature vote with 840 votes to being the 1st post on the feature vote, with over 24% of the votes! Talk about domination!!

Now it’s the matter of getting the development team to start working on the long awaited Linux version, I’ve been waiting for over 4 years now!

SLB experience

I’ve blogged about the internship I had at Shlumberger a few years ago, and the support from the community was overwhelming, I should have written about it earlier. The post ranked in over 950 views in a week, I don’t get this kind of attention usually!

A blogging interview!

I was a guest on Ms. Malak Altaeb’s blog, she is doing a fantastic job and I suggest that you give her a follow.

LTT’s net

“Bykyfk” or pay as you go by LTT is cleaning my pockets dry, I have to charge in a new card daily, which is silly if you ask me considering that the internet is really slow, the only option at hand was to change the package from 2MB/s to 1MB/s. Reducing the line’s speed by half doesn’t mean it reduces the cost by half, but it’s a good start to save some money, since this stupid liquidity crisis isn’t going anywhere.

I’ve also made a net log to track when each card is recharged and how long did it last, I don’t have to keep cards till they finish!

I’ve blogged about Libyan internet back in 2015, little improvement (if any) happened since then.

Final words

This post is a break between the “job posts” I’m writing on my blog in Arabic, looking back; I’ve had some terrible jobs! Is my current job better? Slightly, but don’t tell my manager!!

I hope you enjoyed this technical update, have a lovely weekend and leave a comment below, it’s free!

Reasons why I’m not renewing my domain

2016-04-14 / Muaad Elsharif / 0 Comments

I had a domain for over a year now which I got from Libya’s biggest (and only) ISP,Libya Telecom and Technology, it wasn’t as good as I thought!

I had some expectations about getting a domain of my own, sadly none of them came true, even when I did my best promoting and getting my name out there!

I thought it would look good on a resume.
People started to think (for some reason) that I’m really good with making sites, and all of a sudden I’m plagued with requests of making websites, I am not a web developer!

I thought it would help get me a better job
I thought that having a site (not just a free hosted blog) would catch the eyes of HR personal and enhance my chance of nailing a dream job (any decent job in my case) but it didn’t!
Times aren’t so easy
With this economy I have to squeeze in every penny, and since the domain didn’t reel in any money or do anything real to enhance my career, then I’m better off making other investments and leave the domain for now.
Not making the full potential out of the domain I bought a domain and a hosting space in order to redirect users from my blogspot site to the domain, I didn’t upload anything on the server so it’s a total waste! I found an easy way to change the blog’s name across all posts, and that was awesome! And the space that was given to me was so small! I mean Google provides 15 GB of drive space, and a free hosting services, let alone that using a custom domain takes away the ability of using HTTPS to secure my site!
Difficult to manage I’m using Google’s webmaster tools, and having a custom domains means I have four sites to manage (the blog, the blog with www, the domain, the domain with www) and dropping the custom domain would make the management easier, and since my domain is a country domain, it’s guided towards readers of that county, and my target is the world!!
Promotion issues I thought having a custom domain would make twitter treat my URL differently, instead of taking 30 characters from the tweet it would take less (since I have a shorter domain), well that was not the case there! My url took the same amount of characters and I was in for a shocker! No HTTPS availability Since I linked my blogger domain to my purchased domain, my blogger domain is simply redirecting to my ly domain, in the process I lost HTTPS security because blogger doesn’t support that yet, meaning I’m less secure now than I was before getting the domain!

What happens next?

Life is all about experiences, I had a nice year with a custom LY domain, and now it’s time to go back to the old subdomain that blogspot provides, it’s not that bad, many professional bloggers, artists, and products use subdomains to blog, let alone me! Someone who is still finding his way in the world of blogging. Why should I pay for my site to be online and for people to read free of charge, while I can keep it hosted for free? It would take me some work to change all my bios and social media sites to the new site, but I’m sure it’s worth the effort! And I think that my stats will improve so much after dumping the LY domain which I think it limiting me from reaching my total potential (due to google’s geographic location settings). Do you have a custom domain? How much do you pay for it? What’s your current plan? And finally: What do you think of me going back to a free service hosted by Google? Waiting for your comments below!

Internet in Libya

2015-12-22 / Muaad Elsharif / 0 Comments

I had to write about this issue to let the world know what kind of suffering do we have to endure to get online.

First things first: How do we get our Internet? For the Arabic version, click h ere. There is ONE ISP in Libya (LTT) and it’s government owned.

There are some smaller and much more expensive ”private companies”, they take the Internet from LTT!

And the much more expensive satellite companies (more than a year’s salary just to get you going! And it’s not that great!)

One of the two main networks in Libya provides internet (the other just stopped and no one asked why) and it’s slow and expensive (one gigabyte = 150 LYD)! *

Update: They added special pricing packages as of the end of February 2016, and now 500MB cost 12.5 LYD.

GPTC stands for the general post and communications released CDMA in 2008 which promises to deliver up to 230KB/S. And forgot to assign user names and passwords. Everyone uses the same user name and password! It was stopped long ago!

LTT provides ADSL. But since most people are living away from phone dividers it’s pointless. Let alone that many people don’t have land lines connected to their homes at all!

Good’ol Wimax

Most of the people use Wimax. Which is the newest and latest craze in Libya and everybody wants one! (even the ones who have access to ADSL!). Many people don’t know what Wimax means or what is it supposed to do! The appeal of Wimax is covering a huge space with few users. What’s happening in Libya is quite the opposite. The areas that have Wimax coverage are hugely populated and the network is under a lot of stress. The result: One of the worst Internet connections on earth!

How is it really like?

It’s not uncommon for you to spend minutes refreshing the same page over and over again! Many people try to browse without pictures at all! And others forgot how to spell Youtube! You spend most of your day trying to connect your modem to the internet with no avail. After many reboots you are convinced to go to sleep or forget what you wanted to search! The company claims that the electricity situation is to blame in terms of speed and connectivity, the electric company blames something else. And it goes on!
Internet in Libya is terrible and expensive! It’s like burning your money for the sake of lighting up a room!

What I think is the real reason for slow Internet

Some people think the Internet is not necessary. And that it’s just a way to spend time watching videos and chatting. So it’s useless. Sadly this mentality is the decision maker’s mentality. That the Internet is a luxury not everyone should have access to it.

Other officials think that the Internet is a security breach and the people should be denied access for the sake of security! One of the prime examples is when the regime disconnected the Internet for 5 months during the 2011 uprising. Thinking that would stop the people organizing demonstrations and uploading videos. Taking Internet censorship to a whole new level (think North Korea with oil!).

What does the future hold?

As the world develops 5G communication. The Libyans are still fighting for Wimax modems (all made in China) on the same infrastructure made to support half the actual number of users.. We are a patient nation!
P.S: This is an opinion piece, Only what I think.

Update! This article quotes this blog post stating how slow Libyan internet is!